Energy of formation for dilute alloys with transitional impurities

Abstract

The authors determine the electronic contribution to the energy of formation Delta E in completely disordered dilute alloys from an expansion in successive powers of the impurity concentration; a similar analysis can be used for the magnetic (spin fluctuation) contribution to the energy of formation. Numerical results are presented and discussed, for alloys of transition impurities in noble (copper) or transition (first series) metals, using a realistic band structure and aluminium-based alloys. For transitional alloys a simple sum rule is used which relates Delta E to the host density of states.