title: Equilibrium Vacancy Concentration Driven by Undetectable Impurities.
abstract: By means of ab initio calculations combined to statistical mechanics, we provide new evidence that an experimentally undetectable tiny amount of impurities can be responsible for drastic changes in vacancy concentrations ([V]), inducing large deviations from an Arrhenius law even at low temperature. It is the case of O and N in α-Fe. The present finding is fully compatible with existing experiments, and changes the previous common vision that C has the dominant effect. This study provides a route for bridging the longstanding theoretical-experimental gap on the prediction of [V] in metals.
authors.affiliation: CEA, DEN, Service de Recherches de Métallurgie Physique, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schuler
authors.affiliation: CEA, DEN, Service de Recherches de Métallurgie Physique, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Barouh
authors.affiliation: CEA, DEN, Service de Recherches de Métallurgie Physique, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
authors.forename: Maylise
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nastar
authors.affiliation: CEA, DEN, Service de Recherches de Métallurgie Physique, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
authors.forename: Chu-Chun
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Fu