High-pressure phonon dispersion of copper by using the modified analytic embedded atom method

Abstract

By using the Born—von Kármán theory of lattice dynamics and the modified analytic embedded atom method, we reproduce the experimental results of the phonon dispersion in fcc metal Cu at zero pressure along three high symmetry directions and four off-symmetry directions, and then simulate the phonon dispersion curves of Cu at high pressures of 50, 100, and 150 GPa. The results show that the shapes of dispersion curves at high pressures are very similar to that at zero pressure. All the vibration frequencies of Cu in all vibration branches at high pressures are larger than the results at zero pressure, and increase correspondingly as pressure reaches 50, 100, and 150 GPa sequentially. Moreover, on the basis of phonon dispersion, we calculate the values of specific heat of Cu at different pressures. The prediction of thermodynamic quantities lays a significant foundation for guiding and judging experiments of thermodynamic properties of solids under high pressures.