Predicting the solid state phase diagram for glass-forming alloys of copper and zirconium

The free energies of six crystal structures associated with Cu-Zr alloys-Cu (face centred cubic), Cu2Zr, Cu10Zr7, CuZr, CuZr2 and Zr (hexagonal close packed)-are calculated using the embedded atom potential of Mendelev et al (2009 Phil. Mag. 89 967). We find that the observed low temperature stability of the Cu10Zr7 and CuZr2 phases is not reproduced. Instead, the model predicts that the CuZr phase remains stable down to T = 0 K. This discrepancy is largely removed when the interaction potentials are cut off at a short distance, such as that used by Duan et al (2005 Phys. Rev. B 71 224208). We present evidence, however, that the cut-off distance necessary to achieve the change in phase stability results in pathological artefacts in the energetics of some crystal phases.