Point Defects in Hard Sphere Crystals

Abstract

We report numerical calculations of the concentration of interstitials in hard-sphere crystals. We find that, in a three-dimensional fcc hard-sphere crystal at the melting point, the concentration of interstitials is 2 * 10^-8. This is some three orders of magnitude lower than the concentration of vacancies. A simple, analytical estimate yields a value that is in fair agreement with the numerical results.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures; Submitted to J. Phys. Chem.