A Monte Carlo study of ionic transport in a simple cubic random alloy via the interstitialcy mechanism: effects of non-collinear and direct interstitial jumps

Abstract

Self-diffusion and ionic conduction via the interstitialcy mechanism in a simple cubic, binary random alloy AB were investigated as a function of composition using Monte Carlo simulation. It was found that allowance for non-collinear jumps (partly) replacing concurrent collinear site exchanges leads to a reduction in diffusion correlation effects. This goes along with a shift of the diffusion percolation threshold to lower concentrations of the (more) mobile component B. Even stronger changes of mass and charge transport compared to an exclusively collinear interstitialcy scheme are observed for additional contributions of direct interstitial jumps. It is remarkable that for both extensions of interstitialcy mediated diffusion, the Haven ratio appears to be greater than unity in certain composition ranges poor in B. All results rely on the calculation of tracer and interstitialcy correlation factors in the simplest possible three-dimensional lattice structure. Yet they may have more general relevance to the interpretation of tracer self-diffusion data and ionic conductivity measurements on crystalline materials.