9-13 July 2012
Africa/Johannesburg timezone
<a href="http://events.saip.org.za/internalPage.py?pageId=11&confId=14"><font color=#ff0000>SAIP2012 PROCEEDINGS AVAILABLE</font></a>

The effect of temperature on the calculated bulk vacancy formation energy in Al and Cu

11 Jul 2012, 16:30
20m
Oral Presentation Track A - Division for Condensed Matter Physics and Materials DCMPM2

Speaker

Ms Cornelia van der Walt (University of the Free State Physics Department)

Main supervisor (name and email)<br>and his / her institution

JJ Terblans
Department of Physics, University of the Free State, PO Box 339, Bloemfontein
terblansjj@ufs.ac.za

Would you like to <br> submit a short paper <br> for the Conference <br> Proceedings (Yes / No)?

yes

Level for award<br>&nbsp;(Hons, MSc, <br> &nbsp; PhD)?

PhD

Abstract content <br> &nbsp; (Max 300 words)

  1. Abstract

The vacancy formation energy is an important factor in diffusion kinetics, and has been shown to be dependent on surface orientation in both Al and Cu.1,2 What has not yet been extensively studied is the effect of temperature on these vacancy formation energies, but with the use of density functional theory (DFT) it has been shown for Pt, Pd and Mo that the vacancy formation energy increases with temperature.3 Perfect crystals of Al and Cu were simulated with the use of an embedded atom potential developed by Sutton and Chen.4 The crystals were simulated with surface orientations of (100), (110) and (111) at a range of temperatures. The vacancy formation energy was obtained by finding the difference between the energy needed to remove an atom from inside the crystal volume and the energy obtained from adding an atom to the crystal surface.1,2,5 Bulk binding energies were largely unaffected by the change in temperature, thus the temperature dependence of the average surface binding energies were measured for the points most likely to bond an atom on the surface. Using likely bonding sites, the average surface binding energy f or each crystal was determined for various temperatures. The binding energies were monitored over time to ensure a good average of the surface binding energy for each temperature.

  1. References

[1] Terblans, J.J., 2002, Surf. Interface Anal.33,767-770.
[2] Terblans, J.J., 2003, Surf. Interface Anal.35,548-551.
[3] Mattsson, T.R., Mattsson, A.E., 2002, Physical Review B 66, 214110
[4] Sutton, A. P., Chen, J., 1990, Philosophical Magazine Letters, 61, 139-146.
[5] Terblans, J.J., Erasmus, W.J., Viljoen, E.C., du Plessis, J., 1999, Surf. Interface Anal.28,70.

Apply to be<br> consider for a student <br> &nbsp; award (Yes / No)?

yes

Primary author

Ms Cornelia van der Walt (University of the Free State Physics Department)

Co-authors

Prof. Hendrik Swart (University of the Free State Physics Department) Prof. Koos Terblans (University of the Free State Physics Department)

Presentation Materials

Peer reviewing

Paper