Vacancy decomposition kinetics in crystals at elevated temperatures was analysed. It was found that lattice instability was induced by a significantly enhanced vacancy decomposition at a critical temperature. The critical temperature coincides with the kinetic instability limit (kinetic limit of superheating) of crystals in a variety of metals determined from the homogeneous nucleation catastrophe model.

Vacancy-Decomposition-Induced Lattice Instability and its Correlation with the Kinetic Stability Limit of Crystals. L.W.Wang, L.Zhang, K.Lu:  Philosophical Magazine Letters, 2005, 85[5], 213-9