  The influence of initial heat treatment on anomalous Cr precipitation within
high temperature solubility region in Fe-9Cr alloy has been investigated using
positron lifetime studies. Air-quenched samples with pre-existing dislocations
exhibited a distinct annealing stage in positron lifetime between 800 and 1100
K corresponding to Cr-precipitation. During this stage, Transmission Electron
Microscopy showed fine precipitates of average size 4 nm, dispersed throughout
the sample and from EDS analysis they are found to be Cr-enriched. The
existence of dislocations is found to be responsible for Cr precipitation.
