First-principles calculations on temperature-dependent elastic constants of rare-earth intermetallic compounds: YAg and YCu

We present the temperature-dependent elastic constants of two ductile rare-earth intermetallic compounds YAg and YCu with CsCl-type B2 structure by using a first-principles approach. The elastic moduli as a function of temperature are predicted from the combination of static volume-dependent elastic constants obtained by the first-principles total-energy method with density-functional theory and the thermal expansion obtained by the first-principles phonon calculations with density-functional perturbation theory. The comparison between our calculated results and the available experimental data for Ag and Cu provides good agreements. In the calculated temperature 0–1000 K, the elastic constants of YAg and YCu follow a normal behavior with temperature that those decrease with increasing temperature, and satisfy the stability conditions for B2 structures. The Cauchy pressure for YAg and YCu as a function of temperature is also discussed, and our results mean that YAg and YCu become more ductile while increasing temperature.