The flash phenomenon occurs when oxide ceramics are heated above a threshold temperature under an applied electric field. It is defined as an abrupt increase in the conductivity of the specimen. The specimen then can be held in this state of high conductivity by switching the power supply from voltage to current control. Here, we report on the emergence of new X-ray diffraction peaks in 3 mol% yttria-stabilized zirconia (3YSZ) when the specimen is held in this current controlled state. These peaks are indexed as a pseudocubic phase of zirconia. The peaks extinguish and reappear when the field is turned off and on. The specimen temperature in the flash state is measured from the thermal expansion of platinum, which is placed as a thin film on a small portion of the specimen surface. Experiments without the electric field, at even higher temperatures than those measured with the platinum standard, do not show any change of phase, thus ruling out Joule heating as the cause of this phenomenon. The time dependency of the growth and dissolution of the pseudo cubic phase is reported. These in situ experiments were carried out at the Advanced Photon

This article reports the results of a study designed to expand understanding regarding the effects that the quality of the work relationship between the owner‐manager and the successor has on the continuity of leadership in the family firm. Training of the successor and succession planning were used as measures of leadership continuity. A positive, significant association between the reported quality of the intergenerational work relationship and successor training was found. However, no positive, significant association between the quality of the work relationship and formal succession planning was established.

We report results from in-situ measurements of lattice expansion during flash sintering of 3 mol% yttria stabilized tetragonal zirconia taken at the Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory. The expansion is anisotropic, with the relative expansion of the a-lattice constant exceeding that of the c-lattice constant. The anisotropic expansion cannot be explained by thermal expansion and is consistent with predictions from ab-initio calculations based upon the generation of vacancy-interstitial pairs of zirconium and oxygen. K E Y W O R D SField Assisted Sintering Technology (FAST), modeling/model, thermal expansion, X-ray methods

We show that (110) and (111) peaks weaken while the (211) X-ray diffraction peak gains in intensity in titanium dioxide under the influence of the electric field, during in-situ experiments of flash sintering, carried out at the Advanced Photon Source (APS). The effect is reversible, appearing and vanishing when the field is turned on and off. The changes in the peak intensities are immediate, but they fluctuate with time even though the electric field remains constant. Similar experiments with 3 mol% yttria stabilized zirconia have shown time dependent emergence of new peaks signaling the formation of a different phase, apparently by a diffusion controlled process. In contrast, in titania the existing peaks change intensity under the electric field. We attribute the events in titania to short range movement of atoms and defects in the lattice.

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