First-principles study of the effect of nitrogen vacancies on the decomposition pattern in cubic Ti1-xAlxN1-y

•   The effect of nitrogen substoichiometry on the isostructural phase stabilities of the cubic Ti1−xAlxN1−y system has been investigated using first-principles calculations. The preferred isostructural decomposition pattern in these metastable solid solutions was predicted from the total energy calculations on a dense concentration grid. Close to the stoichiometric Ti1−xAlxN1 limit, N vacancies increase the tendency for phase separation as N sticks to Al while the vacancies prefers Ti neighbors. For nitrogen depleated conditions, N sticks to Ti forming TiN (0<<1) while Al tends to form nitrogen-free fcc-Al or Al–Ti alloys.

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NATURAL SCIENCES

NATURVETENSKAP

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