Self-energy and interaction energy of stacking fault in fcc metals calculated by embedded-atom method

The stacking fault energies of five fcc metals (Cu, Ag, Au, Ni and Al) with various quantivalences have been calculated by embedded-atom method (EAM). It indicated that the stacking fault energy is mainly determined by the metallic bond-energy and the lattice constant. Thus, monovalent fcc metals should have different stacking fault energies, contracy to Attree’s conclusion. The interaction energy between stacking faults one {111} layer apart in a fcc metal is found to be 1/40–1/250 of its self-energy, while it becomes zero when the two stacking faults are two layers apart. The twin energy is just half of the energy of intrinsic stacking fault energy without the consideration of lattice relaxation and the energy of a single intrinsic stacking fault is almost the same as that of extrinsic stacking fault, which are consistent with the results from the calculation of Lennard-Jones force between atoms, but differ from Attree’s result.