An Analytical Self-consistent Solution for the Free Energy of a 1-D Chain of Atoms Including Anharmonic Effects

The self-consistent method of lattice dynamics (SCLD) is used to obtain an analytical solution for the free energy of a periodic, one-dimensional, mono-atomic chain accounting for fourth-order anharmonic effects. For nearest-neighbor interactions, a closed-form analytical solution is obtained. In the case where more distant interactions are considered, a system of coupled nonlinear algebraic equations is obtained (as in the standard SCLD method) however with the number of equations dramatically reduced. The analytical SCLD solutions are compared with a numerical evaluation of the exact solution for simple cases and with molecular dynamics simulation results for a large system. The advantages of SCLD over methods based on the harmonic approximation are discussed as well as some limitations of the approach.