2026/07/20 by Korbinian Hobmaier, Guillaume E. Allemand, Alberto Marmodoro +4
#cond-mat.mtrl-sci
Predictive modeling of ultrashort-pulse laser ablation requires temperature-dependent material parameters derived from the electronic structure, namely the electronic thermal conductivity, electron--phonon coupling, and heat capacity. These parameters are well documented for elemental metals but remain sparsely documented for alloys, apart from application-relevant exceptions such as stainless steels. The technologically important titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V is a prominent example, which is still modeled using elemental-titanium values. We compute the electronic transport of hcp Ti and Ti-6Al-4V from first principles, using the Kubo--Greenwood formalism within the Korringa--Kohn--Rostoker coherent-potential-approximation framework, treating chemical and thermal disorder on equal footing. For elemental Ti, the calculated electrical resistivity agrees with independent abinit electron--phonon calculations and experiment, and also reproduces the high-temperature saturation near the Mott--Ioffe--Regel limit. Under electron--phonon nonequilibrium, the electronic thermal conductivity saturates and then decreases with electronic temperature, reaching a maximum of about \SI2.97\kilo\watt\per\metre\per\kelvin in Ti but only \SI0.47\kilo\watt\per\metre\per\kelvin in Ti-6Al-4V, a factor of 6.4 lower. In two-temperature-model simulations the alloy and elemental parameter sets yield peak lattice temperatures differing by only about 1.4%, consistent with reported experimental ablation thresholds that differ by about 3%, well within their measurement uncertainties. Replacing the first-principles thermal conductivity with the low-temperature Drude limit shifts the peak lattice temperature by up to 19%, showing that the functional form of the transport model is even more important than the elemental vs alloy distinction for predictive accuracy.