Role of substituted atoms in stacking fault formation in long-period stacking ordered system

Abstract

To study the formation mechanism of the long-period stacking ordered (LPSO) structures, the reaction pathways of solid–solid transformations from a hexagonal close-packed (HCP) structure to LPSO structures in Mg-Y-Zn alloys were calculated using the generalized solid-state nudged elastic band method. The energy increases along the transition from HCP to 18R, and the peak positions represent the activation energy for the transition. Y substitution hardly changes the activation energy but makes the 18R-type LPSO structure more stable than HCP. In contrast, Zn or Y + Zn substitution results in higher activation energy and makes the 18R-type LPSO structure less stable than HCP. The calculated results for 14H and 24R LPSO structures also show similar activation energy and LPSO stability to the HCP-18R transition. Therefore, Y substitution plays an important role in stabilizing the stacking faults in LPSO systems. For the microscopic mechanism, the volume dependence of the total energy in pure FCC and HCP Y were examined, and the result suggests that FCC-Y is stable than HCP-Y under pressure. Therefore, the effect of substitution of Y in HCP Mg can be explained by the characteristics of Y under the chemical pressure exerted by the small size of Mg lattice.