Application of the Method of Lattice Statics to Vacancies in Aluminum

In this paper the method of lattice statics is applied to the calculation of the atomic displacements about a vacancy in aluminum using a fifth-neighbor force-constant model for the dynamical matrix and the vacancy-host lattice interaction. The strain-field interaction energy between two vacancies is similarly calculated. The main object of this work is to demonstrate the important modifications of earlier results, obtained for a first- and second-neighbor force-constant model, when one uses the fifth-neighbor model designed to give a significantly better fit to the measured phonon dispersion curves. In particular it is demonstrated that the displacements about the vacancy continue to deviate strongly from the asymptotic elastic-continuurn values out much farther from the defect than is the case for the first- and second-neighbor model