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Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2001 12:20:24 -0500

Dear Robert,

It sounds like the alloy did not get correctly mixed prior to the melting.  I understand it has to be done in a good metallurgy lab setup, with inert atmosphere, and both very well-mixed powdered metals have to be take to the highest melting point so that good even alloying occurs.  It was obviously something we could not do ourselves.

Would encourage you to see if you can get a really decent piece of that alloy made.  Understand, I never did the experiment because I never had the material.   The notion was to apply the voltage (sharp rise time, as you used) for less than a millisecond, and then switch the source away, leaving the not-yet-relaxed electrons excited.

It might also help to discuss this much further with a really good metallurgist who also knows electrodynamics.

Anyway, will hope for your success.  Thanks for filling me in.

Cheers,

Tom


 Dear Tom,

I hope you are feeling better. I tested the Al/Fe alloy yesterday, unfortunately without any success. I.e. I could not discern any difference in relaxation time in relation to a piece of copper. The piece of alloy I have has probably been melted together without any temperature considerations (though in inert atmosphere), that is, since Aluminum and Iron aren't very compatible in this sense, a lot of different alloy phases are present in the material. Some phases where
the concentration is more like 95%/5% and some where there is a lot more Aluminum.

One alternative is to diffusion melt very fine grain powder of Al and Fe at a few centigrades below Al's melting temperature for a couple of hours and let the Fe atoms diffuse into the Al matrix slowly. That way, possibly, a single phase alloy could be had with correct concentration.

Or, maybe my measuring approach is erroneous. I simply measure the voltage of a resistor in series with the alloy, and in this way I have not seen any difference in current response between the alloy and copper. I've hit it with a 10V square wave with approx. 80ns rise time.

If you don't have time to reply to this, I understand. I just thought you would like to know. Incidentally, would you like to have the analysis report on my little piece of this alloy ? (perhaps I could send you a piece of the alloy itself?).

Best regards,

Robert