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Compositional Short-Range Ordering In Metallic Alloys: Band-Filling, Charge-Transfer, And Size Effects From A First-Principles All-Electron Landau-Type Theory, J. B. Staunton, Duane D. Johnson, F. J. Pinski

Duane D. Johnson

Using a mean-field statistical description, we derive a general formalism to investigate atomic short-range order in alloys based on a density-functional description of the finite-temperature, grand potential of the random alloy. This ‘‘first-principles,’’ Landau-type approach attempts to treat several contributions (electronic structure, Fermi surface, electrostatics, magnetism, etc.) to the electronic energy on an equal footing. An important ingredient for the statistical averaging is the replacement of the molecular mean fields (Weiss fields) with Onsager cavity fields, which forces the diagonal part of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem to be obeyed. To show its general applicability and usefulness, we apply the theory to …