PNNL

Abstract

Using ab initio calculations and the magnetic cluster expansion formula, a model with the magnetic effects on the energetic landscape of Fe–Cu was developed. The (partially) disordered local moment picture and Monte Carlo simulation method were combined to study the magnetically disordering effects on the thermodynamic properties in Fe–Cu alloys. The simulation results show nonlinear enhancements of Fe magnetism with increasing Cu concentration under varying magnetic ordering/disordering states, and the nonlinearity of the enhancement is more significant under the ferromagnetic state. It is also found that magnetism has subtle effects on the clustering of Cu because both the substitutional and binding energies could be affected but in different ways depending on the magnetic states. The results suggest that the alloying-induced enhancement of the Fe magnetism is a fundamental feature of Fe–Cu, which introduces difference on the concentration dependence of mixing, depending on the magnetic ordering/disordering states. In conjunction with the concentration dependence of short-range ordering, the enhancement of Fe magnetism also strongly affects the Curie temperatures in Fe–Cu.