  The intermetallic compound Zr3Al is severely deformed by the method of
repeated cold rolling. By X-ray diffraction it is shown that this leads to
amorphization. TEM investigations reveal that a homogeneously distributed
debris of very small nanocrystals is present in the amorphous matrix that is
not resolved by X-ray diffraction. After heating to 773 K, the crystallization
of the amorphous structure leads to a fully nanocrystalline structure of small
grains (10 - 20 nm in diameter) of the non-equilibrium Zr2Al phase. It is
concluded that the debris retained in the amorphous phase acts as nuclei. After
heating to 973 K the grains grow to about 100 nm in diameter and the compound
Zr3Al starts to form, that is corresponding to the alloy composition.
