First-principles study of temperature-dependent diffusion coefficients: Hydrogen, deuterium, and tritium in α-Ti

Abstract

We report the prediction of temperature-dependent diffusion coefficients of interstitial hydrogen, deuterium, and tritium atoms in α-Ti using transition state theory. The microscopic parameters in the pre-factor and activation energy of the impurity diffusion coefficients are obtained from first-principles total energy and phonon calculations including the full coupling between the vibrational modes of the diffusing atom with the host lattice. The dual occupancy case of impurity atom in the hcp matrix is considered, and four diffusion paths are combined to obtain the final diffusion coefficients. The calculated diffusion parameters show good agreement with experiments. Our numerical results indicate that the diffusions of deuterium and tritium atoms are slower than that of the hydrogen atom at temperatures above 425 K and 390 K, respectively.