Point defect study of CuTi and CuTi2

Abstract

The energies and configurations of interstitials and vacancies in the ordered compounds CuTi and CuTi2 were determined using atomistic simulation with realistic embedded-atom potentials. The formation energy of an antisite pair was found to be 0.385 and 0.460 eV in CuTi and CuTi2, respectively. In both compounds, the creation of a vacancy by the removal of either a Cu or Ti atom resulted in a vacant Cu site, with an adjacent antisite defect in the case of the Ti vacancy. The vacant Cu site in CuTi was found to be very mobile within two adjacent (001) Cu planes, with a migration energy of 0.19 eV, giving rise to two-dimensional migration. The vacancy migration energy across (001) Ti planes, however, was 1.32 eV, which could be lowered to 0.75 or 0.60 eV if one or two Cu antisite defects were initially present in these planes. In CuTi2, the vacancy migration energy of 0.92 eV along the (001) Cu plane was significantly higher than in CuTi. The effective vacancy formation energies were calculated to be 1.09 eV and 0.90 eV in CuTi and CuTi2, respectively. Interstitials created by inserting either a Cu or Ti atom had complicated configurations in which a Cu 〈111〉 split interstitial was surrounded by two or three Ti antisite defects. The interstitial formation energy was estimated to be 1.7 eV in CuTi and 1.9 eV in CuTi2.