Order-disorder transition of Pd0.5Ag0.5 alloys

AbstractAb initio total-energy calculations, based on the exact muffin-tin orbitals method, are used to determine the equilibrium chemical configuration of alloy as a function of disorder and temperature. The transition from a substitutionally disordered face-centred-cubic crystallographic phase to an ordered phase is monitored using the coherent potential approximation which allows us to continuously scan the order parameter and thermodynamics of the alloy. We find signs of a first-order phase transition from a substitutionally disordered state to a partially ordered state around 210 K temperature and the completely ordered state is predicted around 90 K.