Inversion of dislocation-impurity interactions in α-Fe under magnetic state changes

In this work, we investigate the dislocation-impurity interaction energies and their profiles for various 3d elements —V, Cr, Mn, Cu, Ni, and Co —in and around $1/2〈111〉$ screw dislocations in α-Fe using ab initio methods. We consider the ferromagnetic and paramagnetic states, with the latter being modeled through both the disordered local moment model and a spin-wave approach. Our findings reveal that (1) magnetic effects are large compared to size misfit effects of substitutional impurities, and (2) dislocation-impurity interactions are dependent on the magnetic state of the matrix and thermal lattice expansion. In particular, Cu changes from core-attractive in the ferromagnetic state to repulsive in the paramagnetic state.