Warning! Note that elemental potentials taken from alloy descriptions may not work well for the pure species. This is particularly true if the elements were fit for compounds instead of being optimized separately. As with all interatomic potentials, please check to make sure that the performance is adequate for your problem.
Citation: S.V. Starikov, L.N. Kolotova, A.Y. Kuksin, D.E. Smirnova, and V.I. Tseplyaev (2018), "Atomistic simulation of cubic and tetragonal phases of U-Mo alloy: Structure and thermodynamic properties", Journal of Nuclear Materials, 499, 451-463. DOI: 10.1016/j.jnucmat.2017.11.047.
Abstract: We studied structure and thermodynamic properties of cubic and tetragonal phases of pure uranium and U-Mo alloys using atomistic simulations: molecular dynamics and density functional theory. The main attention was paid to the metastable γ0-phase that is formed in U-Mo alloys at low temperature. Structure of γ0-phase is similar to body-centered tetragonal (bct) lattice with displacement of a central atom in the basic cell along [001] direction. Such displacements have opposite orientations for part of the neighbouring basic cells. In this case, such ordering of the displacements can be designated as antiferro-displacement. Formation of such complex structure may be interpreted through forming of short U-U bonds. At heating, the tetragonal structure transforms into cubic γs-phase, still showing ordering of central atom displacements. With rise in temperature, γs-phase transforms to γ-phase with a quasi body-centered cubic (q-bcc) lattice. The local positions of uranium atoms in γ-phase correspond to γs-phase, however, orientations of the central atom displacements become disordered. Transition from γ0 to γ can be considered as antiferro-to paraelastic transition of order-disorder type. \n\nThis approach to the structure description of uranium alloy allows to explain a number of unusual features found in the experiments: anisotropy of lattice at low temperature; remarkably high self-diffusion mobility in γ-phase; decreasing of electrical resistivity at heating for some alloys. In addition, important part of this work is the development of new interatomic potential for U-Mo system made with taking into account details of studied structures.
See Computed Properties Notes: These files were sent by S.V. Starikov (Joint Institute for High Temperatures, Russian Academy of Sciences) on 3 Dec. 2017 and posted with his permission. File(s): superseded
See Computed Properties Notes: This file was recieved by Sergei Starikov on August 2, 2018. He noted: "In the previous version, one function for Mo-Mo interaction had poor smoothing with r=r_cut. This "bug" led to the sake of the energy conservation during high-temperature (or long) calculations for pure Mo or U-Mo alloy. I made an additional check and found a small potential compilation issue leading to this energy drift. I fixed the file, so now it can be safely used with the time-step = 0.5 fs, even for long runs at high temperatures (the test was made for 1500K)." File(s):