title: Athermal character of structural phase transitions.
abstract: The significance of thermal fluctuations in nucleation in structural first-order phase transitions has been examined. The prototypical case of martensitic transitions has been experimentally investigated by means of acoustic emission techniques. We propose a model based on the mean first-passage time to account for the experimental observations. Our study provides a unified framework to establish the conditions for isothermal and athermal transitions to be observed.
authors.affiliation: Departament d'Estructura i Constituents de la Matèria, Facultat de Física, Universitat de Barcelona, Diagonal, 647, E-08028 Barcelona, Catalonia.
authors.forename: F J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Pérez-Reche
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vives
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mañosa
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Planes