Atomistic study of self-diffusion in Cu–Ag immiscible alloy system

Abstract Combining molecular dynamic (MD) simulation with modified analytic embedded-atom method (MAEAM) potential, the formation, migration and activation energies have been calculated for four-kind migrations of Cu vacancy and three-kind migrations of Ag vacancy in Cu–Ag immiscible alloy system. The equilibrium concentration of Cu vacancies is greater than that of Ag vacancies owing to the formation energy of Cu vacancy (1.012 eV) is lower than that of Ag vacancy (1.169 eV). Comparing the migration or activation energy needed for four-kind migrations of Cu vacancy and three-kind migrations of Ag vacancy show that the favorable migration mechanism is the nearest-neighbor (NN) jump for Cu vacancy, while the straight [0 1 0] six-jump cycle (6JC) for Ag vacancy. Furthermore, the activation energy of the NN jump of Cu vacancy (2.164 eV) is lower than that of straight [0 1 0] 6JC of Ag vacancy (2.404 eV) also show that the former is more favorable. We conclude accordingly that the primary migration mechanism is the NN jump of an abundance of Cu vacancies.