Ab initio contribution to the study of complexes formed during dilute FeCu alloys radiation

Cu plays an important role in the embrittlement of pressure vessel steels under radiation and entities containing both Cu atoms and vacancies seem to appear as a consequence of displacement cascades. The characterisation of the stability as well as the migration of small Cu-vacancy complexes is thus necessary to understand and simulate the formation of these entities. For instance, cascade ageing studied by kinetic Monte Carlo or by rate theory models requires a good characterisation of such complexes which are parameters for these methods. We have investigated, by ab initio calculations based on the density functional theory, point defects and small defects in dilute FeCu alloys. The structure of small Cu clusters and Cu-vacancy complexes has been determined, as well as their formation and binding energies. Their relative stability is discussed. Vacancy migration energies in the presence of Cu atoms have been calculated and analysed. All the results are compared to the figures obtained with empirical interatomic potentials. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.