Liquid/vapor surface tension of metals: embedded atom method with charge gradient corrections

Molecular dynamics simulations for three embedded atom method (EAM) function sets are used to determine the liquid/vapor surface tension gamma for Al, Ni, Cu, Ag, and Au. The three EAM models differ in both the functional forms employed and the fitting procedure used. All the EAM potentials underestimate gamma but one of the models performs consistently better than the others. We show that including a correction to the local charge density associated with gradients in the density together with exploiting the invariance of the EAM potentials to appropriate transformations in the charge density can lead to improved values for gamma, as well as for solid free surface energies, within existing EAM function sets.     

Ni_(50)Al_(50)合金的液固转变及晶体生长过程的分子动力学模拟

采用分子动力学模拟技术研究了液态Ni50 Al50 合金在不同冷速下的凝固特点 ,模拟采用EAM作用势 ,计算了不同温度 ,不同冷速下Ni50 Al50 的偶分布函数。结果表明EAM作用势能很好地描述液态Ni50 Al50 的无序结构 ,在快速凝固条件下 ,液态Ni50 Al50 形成非晶 ,当冷速较慢时 ,液态Ni50 Al50 形成晶体 ,分析了不同冷速下体系的相变热力学及相变动力学特点。最后采用液固两层构型法 ,清楚地观察到Ni50 Al50 晶体生长的全过程。     

原子掺杂对单元材料结晶能力的影响

2009年我们建立了一个凝结势模型用以预测材料形成单晶体的能力,表明单元体材料(Ni,Al,Cu,Ar,Mg)的结晶能力随凝结势的增大而单调增强.本文将凝结势模型应用于二元材料体系,并结合分子动力学模拟研究了6% Al原子掺杂对于Ni单晶材料结晶能力的影响.模拟结果发现,Al元素的掺杂会大大减弱Ni单晶的结晶能力,在此基础上提出了二元材料体系凝结势的定义,表明凝结势模型可广泛应用于预测二元体材料的结晶能力.     

Extended embedded-atom method for platinum nanoparticles

We present a new technique to extend the embedded-atom method (EAM) for the simulations of non-bulk systems down to the atomic cluster level. To overcome the limitation of the traditional bulk-fit EAM interatomic potentials, bond characteristics from first-principles calculations are systematically included by introducing a local structure dependent prefactor with three additional parameters to the conventional EAM many-body term. The additional parameters improve the local potential landscape virtually for the entire range of atomic configuration space in a quantitative sense. The proposed scheme is applied to two different EAM function sets and validated for both bulk and non-bulk environments in elemental platinum. The obtained material properties, including the binding energies of Pt particles and the Pt adatom diffusion barrier on the Pt(1 1 1) surface, show a significant improvement over the conventional EAM formalism.     

Structural transition of sheared-liquid metal in quenching state

In this Letter, the effects of shear rate on structural properties of liquid Al in quenching process were investigated via molecular dynamics (MD) simulations based on the EAM potential. Analyses in internal energy and pair correlation functions (PCF) reveal an increasing structural transition temperature as the shear rate is enhanced in the liquid. Results of pair analysis indicate that for liquid Al under normal condition, face center cubic (FCC) structure is clearly detected upon cooling; while in sheared liquid, structural transition from FCC to body center cubic (BCC) at temperature of 800 K is manifested, leading to the dominance of BCC structural order at low temperatures.     

自由能方法与零压下Al的熔化温度

利用自由能方法的分子动力学模拟,计算了零压下Al的熔化温度.在计算液相自由能的过程中,采用勒纳-琼斯(LJ)液体作为参考系统,同时将计算结果与Mei和Davenport等人的计算结果进行了比较,计算结果表明：1)选用LJ参考系统使液相自由能的计算时间节省一半,并且不影响熔化温度的计算结果;2)采用不同的埋入原子势(EAM)的分子动力学模拟计算得到的熔化温度与实验值都存在偏差,而就金属Al而言,采用Cai等人的EAM势的熔化温度的计算结果比Mei和Davenport及Morris等人采用的势模型的结果略有改 关键词： 熔化温度 自由能方法 分子动力学模拟     

Influence of Defects and Crystallographic Orientation on Mechanical Behavior of Nanocrystalline Aluminium

Simulation of molecular dynamics using Embedded Atom Method (EAM) potentials is performed to investigate the mechanical properties of single crystal Al along various crystallographic orientations under tensile loading. The specimens are provided with one or two embedded circular voids to analyze the damage evolution by void growth and coalescence. The simulation result shows that the Young's modulus, yielding stress and ultimate stress decrease with the emergence of the voids. Besides, the simulations show that the single-crystal Al in different crystallographic orientations behaves differently in elongation deformations. The single-crystal Al with <100> crystallographic orientations has greater ductility than other orientated specimens. The incipient plastic deformation and the stress-strain curves are presented and discussed for further understanding of the mechanical properties of single-crystal Al.     

Melting curves of FCC-metals by cell-theory

The cell model is developed to account for many body interaction effects, as occurring in the embedded atom method (EAM) potentials, and crystal lattice features to determine the free energy of FCC metals. The well known smearing approximation, which is generally used in conjunction with pair potentials, is also developed for EAM potentials. The free energy so obtained is used to determine melting curves of FCC metals. For this purpose, the liquid phase free energy is calculated using the corrected rigid spheres model. The advantage of our scheme, which is verified with data on Lennard-Jones solids, is that both free energies are based on the same interaction potential. Results match well with the available experimental/theoretical data for Al and Cu. A good agreement is also found for the transition metals, Ni and Pt, for which molecular dynamics as well as theories like Lindemann's law do not give accurate results. It is also found that smearing approximation, which neglects interactions beyond nearest neighbors, also provides good estimates for free energy if many body effects are accounted with EAM potential.     

First-principles study of the adhesive and mechanical properties of the O-terminated α-Al2O3(0001)/Cu(111) interfaces

Adhesive and mechanical properties of the O-terminated (O-rich) α-Al₂O₃(0001)/Cu(111) interface have been examined by the first-principles pseudopotential method. Strong Cu–O covalent and ionic interactions exist, such as Cu3d–O2p hybridization and substantial electron transfer from Cu to O, which result in larger adhesive energy, greater tensile strength and larger interfacial Young's moduli than the Al-terminated (stoichiometric) interface with electrostatic–image and Cu–Al hybridization interactions. Substantial effects of interfacial Cu–O coordination are also present. Changes in the interface electronic structure for cleavage have been examined. Cu–O interlayer potential curves have been analyzed using the universal binding energy relation and compared with Cu–Al and Cu–Cu curves, which is valuable for the development of effective interatomic potentials in large-scale simulations.     

Improvement of modified analytic embedded atom method potentials for noble metals and Cu

The modified analytic embedded atom model (EAM) potentials considering farther neighbor atoms are improved for the noble metals (Ag, Au, Pt, Pd, Rh) and Cu. We not only adopt an end processing function and an enhanced smooth continuous condition for the pair potential, but also adjust the model parameters of multi-body potential by fitting a cohesive energy, a mono-vacancy formation energy, the Rose equation curve for the cohesive energy as a function of lattice parameter, a structure energy difference, elastic parameters and an equilibrium condition of crystal. The calculation results of structure energy differences misfit the experiment data for the noble metals and Cu in the unimproved EAM, because anyone of these differences have not been considered in the calculation of its model parameters. After the modification, the model showed better simulation results for the noble metals and Cu.     

Tests of the empirical potential structure refinement method and a new method of application to neutron diffraction data on water

Empirical potential structure refinement (EPSR) is a method for developing a structural model of a liquid for which diffraction measurements are available. The EPSR technique involves refining a starting interatomic potential energy function in a way that produces the best possible agreement between the simulated and measured site-site partial structure factors. Here a series of test simulations are performed to establish how well the EPSR method can recover the interatomic potential for a single component fluid of Lennard-Jones particles, and for a binary fluid consisting of charged atoms interacting at short range by a Lennard-Jones potential. Special attention is given to the problem of developing an accurate interatomic potential for water using these procedures. An alternative method for perturbing the starting potential is used to obtain the best possible fit to the diffraction data. The resulting parametrization of the water potential is in contrast to many existing effective potentials for water, and indicates that water molecules in the liquid at ambient conditions are highly polarized, as has been suggested in recent ‘first-principles’ simulations of water. Three-body correlation functions and spatial density functions derived from the EPSR simulations show excellent agreement with those obtained with the model potential simulations. However, the potentials extracted by EPSR are found to depend on the constraints applied to the hardness of the core potential and the energy and pressure of the simulation, even when the fits to the data are equally good. It is concluded that performing EPSR on diffraction data can be used as a good test for interatomic potentials and to derive reliable many-body structures in the liquid state, but cannot on its own be used to derive a reliable set of site-site pair potentials for a particular system.     

Atomistic modeling of thermodynamic equilibrium and polymorphism of iron

We develop two new modified embedded-atom method (MEAM) potentials for elemental iron, intended to reproduce the experimental phase stability with respect to both temperature and pressure. These simple interatomic potentials are fitted to a wide variety of material properties of bcc iron in close agreement with experiments. Numerous defect properties of bcc iron and bulk properties of the two close-packed structures calculated with these models are in reasonable agreement with the available first-principles calculations and experiments. Performance at finite temperatures of these models has also been examined using Monte Carlo simulations. We attempt to reproduce the experimental iron polymorphism at finite temperature by means of free energy computations, similar to the procedure previously pursued by Müller et al (2007 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 19 326220), and re-examine the adequacy of the conclusion drawn in the study by addressing two critical aspects missing in their analysis: (i) the stability of the hcp structure relative to the bcc and fcc structures and (ii) the compatibility between the temperature and pressure dependences of the phase stability. Using two MEAM potentials, we are able to represent all of the observed structural phase transitions in iron. We discuss that the correct reproductions of the phase stability among three crystal structures of iron with respect to both temperature and pressure are incompatible with each other due to the lack of magnetic effects in this class of empirical interatomic potential models. The MEAM potentials developed in this study correctly predict, in the bcc structure, the self-interstitial in the (110) orientation to be the most stable configuration, and the screw dislocation to have a non-degenerate core structure, in contrast to many embedded-atom method potentials for bcc iron in the literature.     

Thermodynamic and physical properties of FeAl and Fe3Al: an atomistic study by EAM simulation

With this work we present a newly developed potential for the Fe–Al system, which is based on the analytical embedded atom method (EAM) with long range atomic interactions. The potential yields for the two most relevant phases B2-FeAl and D0₃-Fe₃Al lattice constants, elastic constants, as well as bulk and point defect formation enthalpies, which are in good agreement with experimental and other theoretical data. In addition, the phonon dispersions for B2-FeAl and D0₃-Fe₃Al show a good agreement with available experiments. The calculated lattice constants and formation enthalpy for disordered Fe–Al alloys are in good agreement with experimental data or other theoretical calculations. This indicates that the present EAM potentials of Fe–Al system is suitable for atomistic simulations of structural and kinetic properties for the Fe–Al system.     

体材料结晶能力的理论预测

引入评价晶体材料缺陷的残缺度及描述晶面表面势场的结晶势两个概念,针对Ni,Cu,Al,Ar单质在不同温度条件下的再结晶过程进行了大量的分子动力学模拟,发现残缺度随结晶势的增大而单调地减小,即结晶势越大则形成单晶体能力越强.由于结晶势能够唯一地确定结晶能力并且其计算简单,因此可从理论上快速方便地预测材料形成单晶体的能力. 关键词： 单晶 结晶 分子动力学 材料设计     

Model predictions and experimental characterization of Co-Pt alloy clusters

Model and real cobalt-platinum alloy clusters are compared in terms of structure, composition and segregation. Canonical and semi grand canonical Metropolis Monte Carlo simulations are performed to model these clusters, using embedded atom (EAM) and modified embedded atom (MEAM) potentials. All of them correctly predict the bulk L1₂ Co₃Pt and CoPt₃ structures as well as the L1₀ CoPt phase. However, the lattice parameters, phase stability and the L1₀-fcc order-disorder transition temperature are at variance. Segregation predictions with EAM and MEAM potentials are contradictory. Experimentally, mixed clusters with various compositions were deposited by Low Energy Cluster Beam on amorphous carbon at room temperature. Their size distribution, crystalline structure and composition were examined by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). Clusters with the same size distributions were modelled. Both experiment and modelling show their crystallographic parameters to continuously correspond to the fcc CoPt chemically disordered phase. Diffraction measurements indicate surface segregation of the specie in excess, in agreement with EAM predictions for the Co-rich phase. The consequences on magnetic properties are discussed.     

色谱光谱法测试超临界压力下穿心莲内酯的结晶规律

以30%和95%的穿心莲内酯为实验原料,采用超临界CO2萃取结晶法考察了不同压力下穿心莲内酯在结晶板上的分布规律,同时也考察了晶体的晶型和红外光谱的变化规律。研究证实： 高效液相色谱分析,不同压力下穿心莲内酯在结晶板上都按纯度梯度结晶分布;X射线衍射分析,压力越高,晶体越趋于向比较单一的晶面上择优生长;红外光谱分析,压力的变化,并没有引起穿心莲内酯化学结构的改变。     

An interionic force law for HgCl2 from first-principles molecular calculations

Mercury dichloride is an ionic compound solidifying into a unique layer structure of rod-like monomers, so that unusual structural and physical properties can be expected for its liquid state. We propose a set of pseudoclassical interionic potentials, including three-body forces and electronic-polarization terms, patterned on the results of relativistic first-principles calculations on the molecular monomer, dimer and trimer. The proposed force law will allow structural studies of the condensed phases by molecular-dynamics simulations, with the main aims of exploring the nature of the short-range and intermediate-range order in the melt and the process of ionization at high pressure and temperature.     

Ab initio molecular-dynamics simulations of short-range order in liquid Al80Mn20 and Al80Ni20 alloys

Atomic structures of liquid Al80Mn20 and Al80Ni20 have been calculated by first-principles molecular-dynamics simulations. For both liquid alloys, the local structure is characterized by a strong Al-TM (transition metal) affinity, which leads to a well-pronounced chemical short-range order. However, we show that the occurrence of magnetic moments localized on Mn atoms plays a key role in determining the short-range arrangement of Mn atoms which is also interpreted on the basis of the local fivefold symmetry.