Mechanical stability and strength of a single Au crystal

Abstract

The structural stability and theoretical strength of a Au face-centered cubic (FCC) crystal under uniaxial loading is investigated by combining the modified analytical embedded atom method (MAEAM) with Born stability criteria. The results show that under sufficient compression, there exists a stress-free body-centered cubic (BCC) phase, which is unstable and slips spontaneously to a stress-free metastable body-centered tetragonal phase by consuming internal energy. The structural energy difference between the BCC and FCC phases is in good agreement with the experimental value. The stable region ranged from –2.21 GPa to 6.31 GPa in the theoretical strength or from –9.83% to 7.87% in the strain correspondingly.PACS Nos.: 62.20.–x, 61.50.Ks, 81.05.Bx