Spin and spin-orbit coupling effects in nickel-based superalloys: A first-principles study on Ni₃Al doped with Ta/W/Re

Heavy elements (X = Ta/W/Re) play an important role in the performance of superalloys, which enhance the strength, anti-oxidation, creep resistance, and anti-corrosiveness of alloy materials in a high-temperature environment. In the present research, the heavy element doping effects in FCC-Ni(γ) and Ni3Al(γ′) systems are investigated in terms of their thermodynamic and mechanical properties, as well as electronic structures. The lattice constant, bulk modulus, elastic constant, and dopant formation energy in non-spin, spin polarized, and spin-orbit coupling (SOC) calculations are compared. The results show that the SOC effects are important in accurate electronic structure calculations for alloys with heavy elements. We find that including spin for both γ and γ′ phases is necessary and sufficient for most cases, but the dopant formation energy is sensitive to different spin effects, for instance, in the absence of SOC, even spin-polarized calculations give 1% to 9% variance in the dopant formation energy in our model. Electronic structures calculations indicate that spin polarization causes a split in the metal d states, and SOC introduces a variance in the spin-up and spin-down states of the d states of heavy metals and reduces the magnetic moment of the system.