Synergetic effects of Mn and Si in the interaction with point defects in bcc Fe

The interaction of Mn, Si and Cr with a vacancy and self-interstitial defects in BCC Fe has been analyzed using ab initio calculations. While the interaction of the considered solute clusters with a single vacancy is linearly additive, there is a considerable synergetic effect in the case of self-interstitial atoms, found to bind strongly with Mn-Si pairs. The latter therefore act as deep trapping configurations for self-interstitials. At the same time, the presence of the point defects nearby weakly attractive Mn-Si pairs significantly enhances the solute-solute binding. The revealed effects are rationalized on the basis of charge density and local magnetic moment distributions.