Order-disorder transition in Cu3Au: A combined molecular-dynamics and cluster-variation-method approach

Description of order-disorder transitions based on the phase-field-crystal model

Order-disorder transition is an attractive topic in the research field of phase transformation. However, how to describe order-disorder transitions on atomic length scales and diffusional time scales is still challenging. Inspired from high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, we proposed an approach to describe ordered structures by introducing an order parameter into the original phase-field-crystal model to reflect the atomic potential distribution. This new order parameter contains information about kinds of atoms, showing that different kinds of sublattices in ordered structures can be distinguished by the amplitude of the order parameter. Two case studies, growth of ordered precipitations and evolution of antiphase domains, are also presented to demonstrate the capabilities of this approach.

The vibrational and configurational entropy of disordering in Cu3Au

The thermodynamics of disordering in Cu₃Au have been investigated by measuring the heat capacity of samples with different degrees of long- and short-range order between T = 5 and 720 K using relaxation and differential scanning calorimetry. The heat capacities of L1₂-ordered and fcc-disordered samples show similar behaviour at low temperatures (<300 K). They deviate positively from the linear combination of the end-member heat capacities between ∼30 and 160 K. However, small differences between the two samples exist, as the disordered sample has a larger heat capacity producing a vibrational entropy of disordering of ∼0.05 R. At temperatures higher than 300 K, the heat capacity of the ordered sample shows a prominent lambda-type anomaly at 675 K due to the diffusive L1₂-fcc phase transition. When starting these measurements with disordered samples, ordering effects are observed between 400 and 620 K, and the disordering reaction is observed at 660 K. Evaluation of the data gives an enthalpy and entropy of disordering at 683 K of 2.0 kJ mol^-1 and 0.39 R, respectively. However, these values increase with increasing temperature, thereby reducing the short-range order. Because the vibrational and configurational disordering effects become active at different temperature regimes, i.e., the vibrational effects at low temperatures (T ≪ 300 K) and the sum of both effects at higher temperatures (T > 300 K), they have been successfully separated.

Thermodynamic stability of nanometre-sized Cu₃Au systems

Classical molecular dynamics simulations have been used to investigate the order-to-disorder transition in bulk and nanometre-sized Cu₃Au systems. The Helmholtz free energy difference between ordered and disordered phases was evaluated at different temperatures through the Bennett's method. The change of free energy differences with temperature was employed to identify the transition temperatures. The obtained information was used to study the dynamics of a nanometre-sized Cu₃Au particle in a He gas thermostat at the transition temperature. It is shown that the system underwent rapid fluctuation in the chemical order degree related to the formation of vacancies and of atoms with defective coordination. Additional information on surface energies was also gained through a thermodynamic description of the transition process.

Self-organized transient facilitated atomic transport in Pt/Al(111)

During the course of atomic transport in a host material, impurity atoms need to surmount an energy barrier driven by thermodynamic bias or at ultralow temperatures by quantum tunneling. In the present article, we demonstrate using atomistic simulations that at ultralow temperature, transient interlayer atomic transport is also possible without tunneling when the Pt/Al(111) impurity/host system self-organizes itself spontaneously into an intermixed configuration. No such extremely fast athermal concerted process has been reported before at ultralow temperatures. The outlined novel transient atomic exchange mechanism could be of general validity. We find that the source of ultralow temperature heavy particle barrier crossing is intrinsic and no external bias is necessary for atomic intermixing and surface alloying in Pt/Al, although the dynamic barrier height is a few eV. The mechanism is driven by the local thermalization of the Al(111) surface in a self-organized manner arranged spontaneously by the system without any external stimulus. The core of the short lived thermalized region reaches the local temperature of approximately 1000 K (including a few tens of Al atoms), while the average temperature of the simulation cell is approximately 3 K. The transient facilitated intermixing process also takes place with repulsive impurity-host interaction potential leading to negative atomic mobility; hence, the atomic injection is largely independent of the strength of the impurity-surface interaction. We predict that similar exotic behavior is possible in other materials as well.