Electronic States and Doping Effect of Carbon in the Kink of BCC Iron

Abstract

By the use of the first-principles method, based upon density functional theory, we investigated the effect of C upon the electronic structure of a kink on the ½[111](1¯10) edge dislocation in bcc iron. The results show that C has a tendency to segregate towards the kink. The structural energies of some atoms of interest in the kink with C are lower than those of corresponding atoms in the clean kink. Furthermore, the interactions between C and the neighboring Fe atoms are very strong due to the hybridization between the C 2p state and the Fe 3d4s4p states. We find that there exists some charge accumulations between C and the neighboring Fe atoms. The analysis of the electronic structure indicates that the introduction of C can stabilize the kink system and impede the sideways motion of the kink. The C induces a strong pinning effect on the ½[111](1¯10) edge dislocation and may result in solid solute hardening.