Development of Interatomic Potential for Zr-Ni Amorphous Systems

This study develops a way of determining the interatomic potential of Zr-Ni using an embedded atom method for binary systems that can reproduce the material properties of its amorphous states. In order to ensure the robustness of the developed interatomic potential, the potential energies and lattice constants of Zr crystals, Ni crystals, and Zr-Ni binary crystals that involve a wide range of local atomic environments are employed for fitting. The elastic properties of some such crystals are also employed. In addition, in order to reproduce Zr-Ni amorphous properties, the radial distribution function of Zr70Ni30 amorphous structures and the defect formation energies of Zr-Ni structures are employed. By fitting to a portion of the material properties that requires relatively little computation time, optimization using genetic algorithms is carried out as a first step. As a result, several potential parameter sets are generated. The final potential parameter set, which can reproduce all the material properties used for fitting, is selected from them. The developed potential can reproduce the material properties used for fitting which involve the radial distribution function of the Zr70Ni30 amorphous structure.