Second-moment interatomic potential for Cu-Au alloys based on total-energy calculations and its application to molecular-dynamics simulations

We have evaluated interatomic potentials of Cu, Au and Cu-Au L12 ordered alloys in the framework of the second-moment approximation to the tight-binding theory by fitting to the volume dependence of the total energy of these materials computed by first-principles augmented-plane-wave calculations. We have applied this scheme to calculate the bulk modulus and elastic constants of the pure elements and alloys and we have obtained a good agreement with experiment. We also have performed molecular-dynamics simulations at various temperatures, deducing the temperature dependence of the lattice constants and the atomic mean square displacements, as well as the phonon density of states and the phonon-dispersion curves of the ordered alloys. A satisfactory accuracy was obtained, comparable to previous works based on the same approximation, but resulting from fitting to various experimental quantities.

Duke Scholars

Author Michael J Mehl Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materia ...