First-Principles Thermoelasticity of BCC Iron Under Pressure
First-Principles Thermoelasticity of BCC Iron Under Pressure
First-Principles Thermoelasticity of BCC Iron Under Pressure
net/publication/1859185
CITATIONS READS
62 106
2 authors:
Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:
All content following this page was uploaded by Xianwei Sha on 19 March 2015.
Carnegie Institution of Washington, 5251 Broad Branch Road, NW, Washington DC 20015, USA
We investigate the elastic and isotropic aggregate properties of ferromagnetic bcc iron as a function
of temperature and pressure, by computing the Helmholtz free energies for the volume-conserving
strained structures using the first-principles linear response linear-muffin-tin-orbital method and the
energy from the band structures, and phonon contributions from quasi-harmonic lattice dynamics.
All the elastic moduli increase with increasing pressure, and decrease with increasing temperature.
The isotropic aggregate sound velocities obtained based on the calculated elastic moduli agree well
with available ultrasonic and diamond-anvil-cell data. Birch’s law, which assumes a linear increase
in sound velocity with increasing atomic density, fails for bcc Fe under extreme conditions. First-
principles linear response lattice dynamics is shown to provide a tractable approach to examine the
1
I. Introduction
Information on the influences of pressure and temperature on the elastic moduli and
related aggregate properties of single crystals plays an essential role in predicting and understanding
the interatomic interactions, strength, mechanical stability, phase transition mechanisms and
dynamical response of materials. During the past several decades, considerable experimental efforts
have been devoted to examine the elasticity of bcc iron, as well as its temperature and pressure
dependences.1-10 There are also some first-principles data available, but these calculations only
focus on elasticity at zero temperature, without any thermal effects included.11, 12 Here we have
performed first-principles quasiharmonic lattice dynamics study to examine the elastic moduli of
bcc Fe with pressures and temperatures, using the full-potential linear response linear-muffin-tin-
For a cubic crystal, the three elastic moduli C11, C12 and C44 fully describe its elastic
behavior. C11 and C12 can be determined from the bulk modulus K and shear constant Cs
K=(C11+2C12)/3 (1)
Cs=(C11-C12)/2 (2)
where α is the thermal expansion coefficient, γ is the Grüneisen parameter, and T is the temperature.
The isothermal bulk modulus KT was determined according to the Vinet equation of state (EoS).14,
15
We recently reported first-principles thermal EoS properties for ferromagnetic bcc Fe, including
2
α, γ and KT as a function of temperature and pressure,16 from which we obtained the adiabatic bulk
For cubic crystals, the shear modulus Cs describes materials resistance to shear
deformation across the (110) plane in the [1 1 0] direction, and C44 is the resistance to shear
deformation across the (100) plane in the [010] direction. We obtained both the shear moduli by
shearing the cubic lattice at constant volumes.17 The elastic moduli we present are those that appear
in the equations of motion and directly give sound velocities.18-20 The following tetragonal strains
⎛δ 0 0 ⎞
⎜ ⎟
ε = ⎜0 δ 0 ⎟ (4)
⎜ 0 0 (1 + δ ) −2 − 1⎟
⎝ ⎠
where δ is the strain magnitude. The Helmholtz free energy of the strained structure F(δ) is related
to δ as:
with V as the volume, and F(0) as the free energy for the unstrained structure.
strain:
⎛0 δ 0 ⎞
⎜ ⎟
ε = ⎜δ 0 0 ⎟ (6)
⎜ 0 0 δ 2 /(1 − δ 2 ) ⎟
⎝ ⎠
For many metals and alloys, the Helmholtz free energy F can be accurately separated
as13
3
F(V,T,δ)=Estatic(V,δ)+Fel(V,T,δ)+Fph(V,T,δ) (8)
Estatic(V,δ) is the energy at zero temperature, Fel(V,T,δ) is the thermal free energy arising from
electronic excitations, and Fph(V,T, δ) is the phonon contribution. We obtain both Estatic(V,δ) and
Fel(V,T,δ) from first-principles calculations directly, and use linear response lattice dynamics to
computational approach is based on the density functional theory and density functional
perturbation theory, using multi-κ basis sets in the full potential LMTO method.21, 22 The induced
charge densities, the screened potentials and the envelope functions are represented by spherical
harmonics up to lmax =6 within the non-overlapping muffin-tin spheres surrounding each individual
atom, and by plane waves in the remaining interstitial region with cutoff corresponding to the
16×16×16 fast-Fourier-transform grid in the unit cell of direct space. The k-space integration
needed for constructing the induced charge density is performed over the 16×16×16 grid. We use
eigenvalues for given lattice and nuclear positions.16, 24, 25 We determine the dynamical matrix for a
set of irreducible q points at the 8×8×8 reciprocal lattice grid. The perturbative approach is
employed for calculating the self-consistent change in the potential.26, 27 Careful convergence tests
have been made against k and q point grids and many other parameters. See Ref. 16 for more
computational details.
We calculate the elastic moduli at six different volumes 65, 70, 75, 79.6, 85 and 90
bohr3/atom, and apply several different volume-conserving strain magnitudes varying from 1 to 3%
at each given volume. For each configuration we perform first-principles linear response LMTO
calculations to obtain the band structure and lattice dynamics information, and then computed the
Helmholtz free energies for temperatures from 0 K to 2000 K in intervals of 250 K. We derived the
4
elastic moduli Cs and C44 by fitting the calculated Helmholtz free energies at each given volume and
temperature to Eqs. (5) and (7), respectively. We obtain the related pressure information at the
volume (pressure) in Fig. 1 and Table 1. Several sets of experimental moduli have been published,
and ultrasonic techniques such as rectangular parallelepiped resonance (RPR)7 and phase
comparison method.6 At both the ambient and high pressures, the first principles calculations
generally overestimate the elastic moduli. One of the major reasons for the differences here is due to
the errors in the thermal equation of state. GGA approximation usually leads to smaller equilibrium
volumes for bcc Fe.11, 12, 16, 28 The agreement between the calculated moduli and the experiment is
calculations were previsously performed using the plane-wave VASP code to examine the elasticity
of bcc Fe at zero temperature,11, 12 which underestimated C12 and C44, but overestimated C11. There
are several aspects to account for the differences between the current and pervious theoretical
calculations: the current calculation use the full potential LMTO method, and earlier calculations
both the previous calculations used the PW91 GGA functional,29 while current calculations used the
more recent PBE functional;23 different Eos formulations might have been used to obtain the bulk
modulus; and the equilibrium volumes at zero temperature are slightly different.
Although the pressure dependences of the elastic moduli of bcc Fe were studied using
5
pressures (~1GPa). Only within the past decade, new experimental techniques such as synchrotron
x-ray diffraction8 and inelastic neutron scattering9 have been applied to examine the elastic
properties at much higher pressures. All the calculated elastic moduli show a strong increase with
the increase of pressure, except for Cs at very high pressures. The softening of Cs indicates the
dynamic instability of bcc structure, consistent with earlier theoretical predictions.28, 30 Despite the
offset in the values, the calculated slopes of the elastic moduli with respect to the volume shows
good agreements with experiment. The agreement between current and earlier PAW calculations11
are good, except at large volumes. Some of the discrepancies might be attributed to the different
GGA functional used. The large differences for Ks at large volumes mainly come from the different
equation of state formulations. Caspersen et al. used the Murnaghan EoS, and we employ the Vinet
EoS. Cohen et al. examined the accuracy of various EoS formulations, and found the Vinet
equation to be the most accurate.31 We also compared with the full potential linear-augmented-
plane-wave (LAPW) calculated bulk modulus using the third order Birch-Murnaghan EoS.28
Although the LAPW and PAW calculations used the same PW91 GGA functional, the LAPW bulk
For volumes less than ambient equilibrium value, the anisotropy ratio A=C44/Cs shows a
strong increase with increasing pressure. This is different from bcc Ta, where A first decreases for
Ultrasonic techniques have been widely used to examine the temperature dependence of
calculated moduli C11, C12 and C44 as functions of temperature at pressures from 0 to 40 GPa in
intervals of 10 GPa, in comparison to these experimental data. Although the current first principle
calculations overestimated C11, both C12, C44 and the calculated temperature dependences of the
elastic moduli show good agreements with the experiments at ambient pressure. The calculated
6
moduli decrease with temperature in a quite linear manner at all pressures, consistent with earlier
ultrasonic measurements by Leese and Lord Jr.4 At temperatures above 750 K, the ultrasonic
measured moduli show a more rapid drop than the initial linear slope, which might be associated
with the effects of changing spin order on the elastic properties at high temperatures.7 Dever
reported that the magnetic contributions to C11, Cs and C44 at Debye temperature Tθ (473 K) are 6%,
22%, and 4%, respectively6. Isaak and Masuda found that magnetic contributions account for 28%,
44% and 12% to the change in the C11, Cs and C44 moduli from Tθ to the Curie temperature Tc
(1043 K).7 Although we performed spin-polarized total-energy calculations to study the properties
for ferromagnetic bcc Fe, we have not included the contributions from magnetic fluctuations to the
free energies and elastic moduli. This might be the main reason for the bigger differences between
ambient conditions, our calculations give the following values for bcc iron:
1 dC11
= −2.1 × 10 −4 K −1
C11 dT
1 dC 44
= −1.6 × 10 −4 K −1 (9)
C 44 dT
1 dC '
= −2.2 × 10 −4 K −1
C ' dT
Where C’=(C11+C12+2C44)/2. These are in good agreement with ultrasonic data by Leese and Lord
Jr,4 -2.52, -1.90 and -2.20×10-4 K-1 for C11, C44 and C’, respectively.
Sound velocities in solids are related to the elastic moduli according to the Christoffel
equation.17 For cubic polycrystalline sample, the average isotropic shear modulus G can be
determined from single crystal elastic moduli according to the Voigt-Reuss-Hill scheme13
7
1
G V = (2C s + 3C 44 )
5
1 2 3 −1
GR = [ ( + )] (10)
5 C s C 44
1 V
GH = (G + G R )
2
We show the temperature dependences of the calculated adiabatic bulk modulus Ks and
calculations overestimated both Ks and G, which can be largely attributed to the errors in the EoS.
The calculated temperature dependences show good agreements between the theory and the
ultrasonic experiment by Leese and Lord Jr.4 The ultrasonic data of Dever6 and Isaak and Masuda7
show a more rapid nonlinear drop at high temperatures, which might be associated with the degree
of ferromagnetic ordering. Low-frequency torsional measurements gave much smaller values for G
at high temperatures, 29 and 38 GPa at frequencies of 0.01 and 1 Hz at TC, respectively.10 These
values are around 14-29 GPa less than the ultrasonic measurements, and the differences might be
attributed to the significant viscoelastic relaxation in bcc Fe at high temperature.7 The torsional
oscillation and creep tests at seismic frequencies and high temperatures reveal intense viscoelastic
The three isotropically averaged aggregate sound velocities can be derived from bulk
4
v P = [( K + G ) / ρ ]1 / 2
3
v B = ( K / ρ )1 / 2 (11)
v S = (G / ρ )1 / 2
8
Where vP, vB and vS are the compressional, bulk and shear sound velocities, respectively, and ρ is
atomic density.
For [110] wave propagation direction in a cubic lattice, the longitudinal mode is
ρv 2 = (C11 − C12 ) / 2 = C s
(13)
2
ρv = C 44
We show the calculated sound velocities of bcc Fe as a function of atomic density in Fig.
4, which agree within 3% with the ultrasonic1, 5 and recent inelastic X-ray scattering33 experimental
data. The velocities at a given volume agree much better with the experiment then the moduli at a
given pressure due to two major reasons: the errors in the thermal equation of state; and the fact that
the sound velocities are the square root of the bulk and shear moduli. We show the calculated shear
wave velocities as a function of atomic density at three different temperatures in Fig. 5. When the
atomic density varies from 7.5 to 9 g/cm3, the computed values closely obey Birch's Law, which
predicts that the velocity of each material is linear with atomic density. The linear slope of the
Birch’s plots shows an increase with increasing temperature, similar to what has been observed in
hcp Fe in recent inelastic x-ray scattering experiment.34 However, with further compression, the
computed velocities show a strong deviation from Birch’s Law, and the effects are more
pronounced at high temperatures. The large deviation occurs at high pressures (P> 25GPa), where
bcc is still dynamically stable, but not thermodynamically stable.16 At room temperature, bcc Fe
the compressional and shear wave velocities of hcp Fe at high pressures and temperatures could not
9
IV. Conclusions
The elasticity and sound velocity of bcc Fe are presented from first-principles linear
response calculations. Generally the calculated moduli are in fairly good agreements with
ultrasonic, inelastic neutron scattering and x-ray diffraction measurements. However, there are
some systematic shifts in moduli and the thermal equation of state from experiment, so that an
improved density functional for ferromagnetic bcc Fe is desirable. Elastic moduli normally show an
increase with increasing pressure and a quite linear decrease with temperature. The temperature and
pressure dependences of the calculated moduli agree with experiment. The isotropic aggregate
sound velocities are obtained based on the calculated elastic moduli, which show good agreements
with available ultrasonic and diamond-anvil-cell data. The isotropic wave velocities follow the
Birch’s law only when the pressure is less than 25 GPa, with an increase in the slope of the Birch’s
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank S. Y. Savrasov for kind agreement to use his LMTO codes and many helpful discussions.
This work was supported by DOE ASCI/ASAP subcontract B341492 to Caltech DOE w-7405-
ENG-48. Computations were performed on the Opteron Cluster at the Geophysical Laboratory and
ALC cluster at Lawrence Livermore National Lab, supported by DOE and the Carnegie Institution
of Washington.
10
REFERENCES
1
G. Simmons and H. Wang, Single crystal elastic constants and calculated aggregate
S. C. Schmidt, J. W. Shaner, G. A. Samara and M. Ross (Am. Inst. of Phys., New York,
1994), p. 939.
11
K. J. Caspersen, A. Lew, M. Ortiz, and E. A. Carter, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 115501 (2004).
12
L. Vocadlo, G. A. de Wijs, G. Kresse, M. Gillan, and G. D. Price, Faraday Discuss. 106,
205 (1997).
13
O. L. Anderson, Equations of state of solids for geophysics and ceramic science (Oxford
11
18
T. H. K. Barron and M. L. Klein, Proc. Phys. Soc. London 85, 523 (1965).
19
E. Gregoryanz, R. Hemley, H. Mao, and P. Gillet, Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 3117 (2000).
20
G. Steinle-Neumann, L. Stixrude, and R. E. Cohen, Phys. Rev. B 60, 791 (1999).
21
S. Y. Savrasov and D. Y. Savrasov, Phys. Rev. B 46, 12181 (1992).
22
S. Y. Savrasov, Phys. Rev. B 54, 16470 (1996).
23
J. P. Perdew, K. Burke, and M. Ernzerhof, Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 3865 (1996).
24
X. W. Sha and R. E. Cohen, Phys. Rev. B 73, 104303 (2006).
25
E. Wasserman, L. Stixrude, and R. E. Cohen, Phys. Rev. B 53, 8296 (1996).
26
S. Y. Savrasov and D. Y. Savrasov, Phys. Rev. B 54, 16487 (1996).
27
S. Y. Savrasov, Phys. Rev. Lett. 69, 2819 (1992).
28
L. Stixrude, R. E. Cohen, and D. J. Singh, Phys. Rev. B 50, 6442 (1994).
29
J. P. Perdew, J. A. Chevary, S. H. Vosko, K. A. Jackson, M. R. Pederson, D. J. Singh,
Mermet, D. Farber, C. Aracne-Ruddle, and J. Zhang, Phys. Earth Planet. Inter. 143-144, 5
(2004).
34
J. F. Lin, W. Sturhahn, J. Y. Zhao, G. Y. Shen, H. K. Mao, and R. J. Hemley, Science
(1995).
12
600
3.0
A=C44/Cs
500 C 11 2.5
2.0
Elastic Moduli (GPa)
400 K
1.5
60 70 80
C 12 Volume (Bohr3 )
300
C 44
200
Cs
100
0
65 70 75 80 85
V (bohr3 )
Fig. 1. The calculated static elastic constants for ferromagnetic bcc Fe as a function of
atomic volume (solid lines) at ambient temperature. Open circles, filled circles and open
diamonds with error bars are experimental data from inelastic neutron scattering (Ref. 9),
temperature theoretical PAW moduli (Ref. 11) and LAPW bulk modulus (Ref. 27) are
shown in dashed and dotted lines. The inset shows the volume dependence of the
anisotropy ratio.
13
500
C11(GPa) 400
300
200
300
C12(GPa)
200
100
200
C44(GPa)
150
100
50
500 1000 1500
T (K)
Fig. 2. The calculated temperature dependences of the elastic moduli for ferromagnetic
bcc Fe, at pressures from 0 (lowest curve) to 40 GPa (uppermost curve) with 10 GPa
Ref. 6; open diamonds, Ref. 4; filled circles, Ref. 7) are also presented.
14
400
320
Ks (GPa)
240
160
160
G (GPa)
120
80
40
with 10 GPa internal. Experimental data at ambient pressure from ultrasonic (cross, Ref.
15
8.0
7.0 VP
Sound velocity (km/s)
6.0
VB
5.0
[001]
4.0
Vs
3.0 [1-10]
2.0
7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5 9.0 9.5
Density (g/cm3)
constants. The isotropic aggregate velocities are shown by solids lines, with vP, vB and vS
standing for the compressional, bulk and shear sound velocities, respectively. Dotted
lines represent the longitudinal and two transverse sound velocities in the [110] direction,
with brackets showing the polarization of the shear waves. Experimental isotropic
compressional and shear velocities, measured by ultrasonic (open diamonds, Ref. 1; filled
circles, Ref. 5) and inelastic X-ray scattering (Cross, Ref.33) are also shown.
16
4.5
4.0
vs (km/s)
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
7 8 9 10
Density (g/cm3)
Fig. 5. Compressional wave velocity for bcc Fe as a function of atomic density. Birch
law (linear dependence of the longitudinal acoustic sound velocity with the atomic
density, shown as solid, dashed and dotted lines for 250, 1000 and 2000 K results,
respectively) clearly fails when the atomic density is less than 7.5 g/cm3, showing by the
significant discrepancies from the computed data (filled circles, 250K; cross, 1000K; and
open diamonds, 2000K). The slope of the Birch lines shows an increase with temperature.
17
TABLE I. The static elastic, bulk and isotropic shear moduli of ferromagnetic bcc Fe.
Moduli are given in units of GPa, temperature T are given in Kelvin, and volume V are
given in bohr3/atom.
0 GPa
4.6 GPa
9.8 GPa
18