The lattice dynamics in substitutional disordered alloys with constituents having large size differences is driven by strong disorder in masses, inter-atomic force constants and local environments. In this letter, a new first-principles approach based on special quasi random structures and itinerant coherent potential approximation to compute the phonon spectra of such alloys is proposed and applied to Ni$_{ 0.5}$Pt$_{ 0.5}$ alloy. The agreement between our results with the experiments is found to be much better than for previous models of disorder due to an accurate treatment of the interplay of inter-atomic forces among various pairs of chemical species. This new formalism serves as a potential solution to the longstanding problem of a proper microscopic understanding of lattice dynamical behavior of disordered alloys.
Categories: cond-mat.mtrl-sci cond-mat.dis-nn