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Register a new userZirconia and hafnia polymorphs -- ground state structural properties from diffusion Monte Carlo
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Zirconia (zirconium dioxide) and hafnia (hafnium dioxide) are binary oxides used in a range of applications. Because zirconium and hafnium are chemically equivalent, they have three similar polymorphs, and it is important to understand the properties and energetics of these polymorphs. However, while density functional theory calculations can get the correct energetic ordering, the energy differences between polymorphs depend very much on the specific density functional theory approach, as do other quantities such as lattice constants and bulk modulus. We have used highly accurate quantum Monte Carlo simulations to model the three zirconia and hafnia polymorphs. We compare our results for structural parameters, bulk modulus, and cohesive energy with results obtained from density functional theory calculations. We also discuss comparisons of our results with existing experimental data, in particular for structural parameters where extrapolation to zero temperature can be attempted. We hope our results of structural parameters as well as for cohesive energy and bulk modulus can serve as benchmarks for density-functional theory based calculations and as a guidance for future experiments.
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We have applied the many-body ab-initio diffusion quantum Monte Carlo (DMC) method to study Zn and ZnO crystals under pressure, and the energetics of the oxygen vacancy, zinc interstitial and hydrogen impurities in ZnO. We show that DMC is an accurate and practical method that can be used to characterize multiple properties of materials that are challenging for density functional theory approximations. DMC agrees with experimental measurements to within 0.3 eV, including the band-gap of ZnO, the ionization potential of O and Zn, and the atomization energy of O$_2$, ZnO dimer, and wurtzite ZnO. DMC predicts the oxygen vacancy as a deep donor with a formation energy of 5.0(2) eV under O-rich conditions and thermodynamic transition levels located between 1.8 and 2.5 eV from the valence band maximum. Our DMC results indicate that the concentration of zinc interstitial and hydrogen impurities in ZnO should be low under n-type, and Zn- and H-rich conditions because these defects have formation energies above 1.4 eV under these conditions. Comparison of DMC and hybrid functionals shows that these DFT approximations can be parameterized to yield a general correct qualitative description of ZnO. However, the formation energy of defects in ZnO evaluated with DMC and hybrid functionals can differ by more than 0.5 eV.
Cubic hafnia (HfO$_2$) is of great interest for a number of applications in electronics because of its high dielectric constant. However, common defects in such applications degrade the properties of hafina. We have investigated the electronic properties of oxygen vacancies and nitrogen substitution in cubic HfO$_2$ using first principles calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) and many-body diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) methods. We investigate five different charge defect states of oxygen vacancies, as well as substitutional N defects which can lead to local magnetic moments. Both DMC and DFT calculations shows that an oxygen vacancy induces strong lattice relaxations around the defect. Finally, we compare defect formation energies, charge and spin densities obtained from DMC with results obtained using DFT. While the obtained formation energies from DMC are 0.6~eV -- 1.5~eV larger than those from GGA+U, the agreement for the most important defects, neutral and positively charged oxygen vacancies, and nitrogen substitutional defect, under oxygen-poor conditions are in reasonably good agreement. Our work confirms that nitrogen can act to passivate cubic hafnia for applications in electronics.
Spin crossover molecules have recently emerged as a family of compounds potentially useful for implementing molecular spintronics devices. The calculations of the electronic properties of such molecules is a formidable theoretical challenge as one has to describe the spin ground state of a transition metal as the legand field changes. The problem is dominated by the interplay between strong electron correlation at the transition metal site and charge delocalization over the ligands, and thus it fits into a class of problems where density functional theory may be inadequate. Furthermore, the crossover activity is extremely sensitive to environmental conditions, which are difficult to fully characterize. Here we discuss the phase transition of a prototypical spin crossover molecule as obtained with diffusion Monte Carlo simulations. We demonstrate that the ground state changes depending on whether the molecule is in the gas or in the solid phase. As our calculation provides a solid benchmark for the theory we then assess the performances of density functional theory. We find that the low spin state is always over-stabilized, not only by the (semi-)local functionals, but even by the most commonly used hybrids (such as B3LYP and PBE0). We then propose that reliable results can be obtained by using hybrid functionals containing about 50% of exact-exchange.
Magnetism in lanthanum cobaltite (LCO, LaCoO$_3$) appears to be strongly dependent on strain, defects, and nanostructuring. LCO on strontium titanate (STO, SrTiO$_3$) is a ferromagnet with an interesting strain relaxation mechanism that yields a lattice modulation. However, the driving force of the ferromagnetism is still controversial. Experiments debate between a vacancy-driven or strain-driven mechanism for the ferromagnetism of epitaxial LCO. We found that a weak lateral modulation of the superstructure is sufficient to promote ferromagnetism. We find that ferromagnetism appears under uniaxial compression and expansion. Although earlier experiments suggest that bulk LCO is nonmagnetic, we find an antiferromagnetic ground state for bulk LCO. We discuss the recent experiments which indicate a more complicated picture for bulk magnetism and a closer agreement with our calculations. Role of defects are also discussed through excited state calculations.
We have used diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) calculations to study the structural properties of magnesium hydride (MgH$_2$), including the pressure-volume equation of state, the cohesive energy and the enthalpy of formation from magnesium bulk and hydrogen gas. The calculations employ pseudopotentials and B-spline basis sets to expand the single particle orbitals used to construct the trial wavefunctions. Extensive tests on system size, time step, and other sources of errors, performed on periodically repeated systems of up to 1050 atoms, show that all these errors together can be reduced to below 10 meV per formula unit. We find excellent agreement with the experiments for the equilibrium volume of both the Mg and the MgH$_2$ crystals. The cohesive energy of the Mg crystal is found to be 1.51(1) eV, and agrees perfectly with the experimental value of 1.51 eV. The enthalpy of formation of MgH$_2$ from Mg bulk and H$_2$ gas is found to be $0.85 pm 0.01$ eV/formula unit, or $82 pm 1$ kJ/mole, which is off the experimental one of $76.1 pm 1$ kJ/mole only by 6 kJ/mole. This shows that DMC can almost achieve chemical accuracy (1 kcal/mole) on this system. Density functional theory errors are shown to be much larger, and depend strongly on the functional employed.
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