A tight-binding method was used to calculate the generalized stacking-fault energy and Rice ductility criterion for face-centered cubic metals. The method was found to work well for simple metals, noble metals and transition metals. The results were compared with full-potential linear muffin-tin orbital and embedded atom method calculations, as well as with experimental data; all with good agreement. This was considered to be impressive, because the present method fitted only first-principles full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave equations of state and band structures for cubic systems. A comparable accuracy, using embedded-atom method potentials, could be achieved only by fitting the stacking-fault energy.

Tight-Binding Study of Stacking Fault Energies and the Rice Criterion of Ductility in the FCC Metals. M.J.Mehl, D.A.Papaconstantopoulos, N.Kioussis, M.Herbranson: Physical Review B, 2000, 61[7], 4894-7