Laves phase Crystal Analysis (LaCA)

The identification of defects in crystal structures is crucial for the analysis of atomistic simulations. Many methods to characterize defects that are based on the classification of local atomic arrangement are available for simple crystalline structures like face-centered cubic or body-centered cubic crystals. However, there is currently no method to identify both, the crystal structures and internal defects of topologically close-packed (TCP) phases such as Laves phases. We propose a new method, Laves phase Crystal Analysis (LaCA), to characterize the atomic arrangement in Laves crystals by interweaving existing structural analysis algorithms. The new method can identify the polytypes of Laves phases, typical crystallographic defects, and common deformation mechanisms such as synchroshear and non-basal dislocations. LaCA is robust and easily extendable to other TCP phases.