An empirical two-body potential model has been developed in order to describe the electronic and ionic defect properties of orthorhombic YBa 2 Cu307. The potential model was derived starting from known potentials and calculated potentials and fits the crystal structure to better than 0.03 A for the major bonds. Oxygen vacancy formation and hole trapping as a localized polaron are most favorable at the chain oxygen ion site. Hole trapping on Cu + ions is most favorable for ions in the copper-oxygen plane. Divalent impurity ions such as Ni+2, Zn+2 and Cd+2 can dissolve in the crystal preferentially at the Cu+2 plane site.

We estimated surface penetration barriers for interstitial oxygen using a simple calculational scheme, the effective-medium theory for a single atom. In this theory the single parameter describing the host is the electron density. Since the electron density depends primarily on the interatomic distances, i.e. the structure of the host, we found that the barrier to oxygen penetration in oxides depends primarily on the structure of the oxide, the closest-packed isotropic oxides with the smallest lattice constants having the highest barriers.

Many-body potentials, in either the Embedded Atom or Finnis-Sinclair form, have gained wide popularity recently. The major difficulty in implementing the method concerns the derivation of suitable forms for the pair potential, electron density, and embedding, function which reproduce a range of empirically observable parameters such as elastic constants, defect formation energies, and defect Green's functions. This is a particularly difficult problem for niobium, which shows a variety of anomalous features in its phonon dispersion. Embedding functions which match only elastic constants may do a poor job of reproducing short wavelength behavior, and hence provide poor defect modeling. A straightforward method of deriving embedding functions for homonuclear BCC and

FCC metals will be presented which provides excellent agreement with experimental phonon dispersion curves and elastic constants, as well as Griineisen coefficients, vacancy formation energies, lattice constants and heats of sublimation. The results of the application of a set of many-body potentials derived in this fashion to nitrogen irradiated niobium will be presented.

Pair interaction potentials have been developed by spline fitting cubic functions to reproduce perfect lattice properties. The lattice symmetry is taken as hcp with the rigid sphere c/a ratio and a cut-off distance between second and third neighbor is assumed. The lattice parameter, elastic constants and vacancy formation energy of Mg, Ti and Zr are consistently fitted by the potentials. We have calculated the lattice relaxation predicted by these potentials for the vacancy, and self interstitial in an otherwise perfect hcp lattice. The stability and dynamics of those defects are studied within the quasi-harmonic approximation. The interstitial site occupancy in hcp lattice and the vacancy and interstitial diffusion are discussed.

Recent modelling of defects in the h.c.p, metals is discussed, including the properties of vacancies and self-interstitials, and the structure of twin-boundary dislocations. Most simulations have used pair potentials, and their strengths and weaknesses are described. It is shown that an understanding of the atomic structure of h.c.p, defects is at last emerging.

The dislocation core is now recognised as a major contributor to many physical properties in bulk materials, for example the plasticity of metals. Less well known is that the dislocation core can be similarly important in two-dimensional (2D) systems such as surface films. Core properties in bulk materials are reviewed briefly, with emphasis on the diversity of behavior and on unifying concepts. Dislocation cores in 2D matter are considered in more detail, with particular reference to the role of the dislocation core in the melting transition.

Atomic structures of 60° dislocations were calculated in bulk Si and Ge ,and at Ge/Si interfaces, using energy minimization techniques. An empirical three body potential developed by Stillinger-Weber was used for Si ,and the same potential with modified parameters was used for Ge. Two different configurations of a 60° dislocation (shuffle and glide) were compared. Energetics of a 60° dislocation in shuffle configuration in bulk Si and Ge , and at Ge/Si interfaces are discussed.

Using an Embedded Atom Method calculation of the interatomic potentials and volume forces in the Ni-Al alloy system, we have examined the plastic and elastic response of an ordered bcc Ni-Al crystal with a pre-existing crack under Mode I loading at various temperatures, stresses and crystal orientation. Depending upon those conditions we found evidence of slip and dislocation generation near the crack tip concomitant with crack propagation. we also saw evidence of a brittle to ductile transition above a certain temperature which is manifested by copious slip and dislocation production. Atomic arrays up to 4000 atoms have been studied.

Using an ab-initio molecular dynamics approach based on the Car-Parrinello method, the detailed atomic and electronic structure of a high-angle grain boundary in germanium is determined by investigating its energy-translation surface. Information concerning the coordination of the lowest energy configuration, its translation state, volume change, structure factor and local density of states is obtained.

Stacking faults in a perfect crystal can be seen as limiting structures of certain series of polytypes of that crystal. A parametrization of the energy of polytypes in terms of interaction constants between layers therefore allows for the calculation of stacking-fault energies. The first-principles pseudopotential-density-functional method is used to calculate total energies of a few simple polytypes of silicon and carbon. The energies of intrinsic and extrinsic stacking faults (γISF and γESF , respectively) in silicon and diamond that follow from these calculations are in much better agreement with available experimental numbers than in previous theoretical approaches. I find: γISF = 47 mJm-2 and γESF = 36 mJm-2 for Si, γISF = 300 mJm-2 and γESF = 253 mJm-2 for diamond. From recently published similar calculations for polytypes of silicon carbide one obtains a negative energy for the extrinsic stacking fault, if zincblende silicon carbide is taken as the unfaulted structure, suggesting the observed occurrence in nature of polytypism in silicon carbide.

The motion of the crystal-melt interface of silicon has been investigated using molecular dynamics computer simulations. Solidification and melting have been studied for the diamond cubic (111) and (100) interfaces using the Stillinger-Weber interatomic potential for silicon. These results are compared with theory, and also with experimental results.

The growth kinetics of melting nucleated at a high-angle twist boundary in silicon are investigated using molecular dynamics. Melting is found to be a two-stage process. In the first stage order is lost within a single plane at the interface and the density of the solid increases to that of the liquid. In the second stage the atomic coordination changes and an isotropic liquid is formed.

We have used embedded atom potentials to simulate the surfaces, thin films and grain boundaries in metals (Ni and Al) and alloys (NiAl and Ni3Al). The calculated surface relaxations and ripplings of free surfaces are in good agreement with experiments. A new interference phenomena of interlayer relaxation in thin films are observed in the simulation. The segregation behavior of B and S and their effects on the mechanical properties of Ni3Al are correctly predicted with potentials fitted to data obtained by electronic band structure calculations.

Stacking faults in close-packed metals are known to play a crucial role in determining mechanical behaviour. Extending recent layer Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker calculations on twin faults in a variety of FCC crystals, we study in detail the aluminium defect and develop an atomistic understanding of the modifying behaviour of small concentrations of impurity atoms.

The behavior of a metallic grain boundary at high temperatures is studied using an embedded atom potential. A recently developed molecular dynamics code is used which allows the simulation of an isolated grain boundary at temperatures as high as the bulk melting point. The stability of the boundary below the melting point is studied and compared with earlier investigations which have suggested the existence of a “premelting“ transition. It is found that the boundary migrates at high temperature but remains well defined up to the bulk melting point. In contrast to simulations of ideal crystals, it was not possible to superheat the grain boundary due to the nucleation of bulk melting at the boundary.

Molecular dynamics shock wave simulations have been performed, which for the first time include a realistic many-body description of the atomic interactions. The structural instabilities observed in the shock-front structure are dramatically influenced by the many-body effects of these atomic interactions.

We discuss calculations of the electronic and crystallographic structure at the interfaces of titanium-carbon and tungsten-carbon superlattices. Specifically, we present total energy calculations for an arrangement of atoms designed to allow direct investigation of the competition between the formation of M-C bonds and C-C bonds. We conclude that the equilibrium structure is dominated by C-C bonding and so find that the interface has a graphite-like atomic arrangement rather than a carbide-like arrangement. These total energy calculations have been performed using a recently developed self-consistent linear combination of muffin-tin orbitals electronic structure method. This is a full-potential, all-electron, variation on standard LMTO electronic structure methods and, along with careful self-consistent determination of the parameters involved, allows accurate total energy calculations of the type of low symmetry systems involved in this study.

The embedded-atom method was applied in computer simulations to study epitaxial Cu/Ag interfaces in cube-on-cube orientation relationship. Coherent and semicoherent interfaces were studied with inclinations parallel to (001), (011) and (111). The coherent boundary energy depends strongly on the predicted enthalpy of mixing. The interfacial energy for semicoherent boundaries was highly anisotropic, having its largest value (549 mJ/m2) for the (011) interface and its smallest value (231 mJ/m2) for the (111) interface. The periodic elastic relaxations correspond to networks of misfit dislocations lying in the plane of the interface; the maximum displacement in the (011) interface is about one-third the atomic diameter, but only one-eighth the atomic diameter in the (111) interface.

A combination of bulk and slab total energy calculations have been done to disentangle the energetics of metal adlayer and multilayer formation. Results have been obtained for Pd/Nb(110), Pd/Nb(001), Ag/Nb(ll0), Ag/Nb(001) and Nb/Pd(111) which provide a picture consistent with what is known experimentally for these systems.

Molecular dynamics calculations have been carried out on a primitive model of a Langmuir-Blodgett film. The model consists of a patch of 151 molecules, each with a head group and a 19 pseudoatom tail, physisorbed on a planar substrate at room temperature. The aggregated patch is found to be a stable entity for the duration of the calculation (200 ps), with structural features similar to those found in previous calculations on a monolayer system which employed periodic boundary conditions but no explicit headgroup. Results are presented for the density distribution normal to the surface, the average chain tilt angle distribution and for the number of gauche defects.