Editors: | F. Kongoli, Y. Kawamura, E. Aifantis, D. Shih |
Publisher: | Flogen Star OUTREACH |
Publication Year: | 2019 |
Pages: | 82 pages |
ISBN: | 978-1-989820-13-1 |
ISSN: | 2291-1227 (Metals and Materials Processing in a Clean Environment Series) |
A class of dilute magnesium alloys in which solute atoms (Zn, Y) are enriched in a periodic stacking fault to the (0001) plane of the hcp structure show high-strength and ductility [1]. Much attention has been paid to the studies of materials that are expected to be involved in the strengthening of mechanisms. For the class of Mg - transition-metal (M) - rare-earth (RE) metal alloys, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) found various polytype structures such as 12R, 24R, 10H, 18R, and 14H, which have different numbers of Mg layers between solute atoms (M and RE) concentrated layers [2]. Such a unique atomic structure is referred to as a long-period stacking ordered (LPSO) structure. Furthermore, recent structural analysis using TEM and first-principles calculations reveal that solute elements form M6RE8 (L12 type) cluster in the concentrated layer of the LPSO phase [3]. It is experimentally found that the degree of regularity of solute atoms depends on the choice of M and the difference in the amount (composition) of solute atoms, which is correlated to the observed type of LPSO structure [4]. The origin of the phase stabilities and formation mechanisms of the LPSO structure, however, has not been clarified yet. In this study, to understand the microscopic origin of the phase stabilities of the structural polymorphs with different compositions of solute elements, we performed first-principle density-functional theory (DFT) calculations for Mg –M - Y alloys (M = Co, Ni, Cu, Zn) with 12R, 18R and 10H structures. We found that the structural distortion of the L12 cluster is uniquely determined by the choice of M atom. We explain how the geometries of the L12 solute cluster affects the electronic state near the Fermi level that crucially determines the stabilities of the LPSO phases.