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Register a new userPrediction of New Ground State Crystal Structure of Ta2O5
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Tantalum pentoxide (Ta2O5) is a wide-gap semiconductor which has important technological applications. Despite the enormous efforts from both experimental and theoretical studies, the ground state crystal structure of Ta2O5 is not yet uniquely determined. Based on first-principles calculations in combination with evolutionary algorithm, we identify a triclinic phase of Ta2O5, which is energetically much more stable than any phases or structural models reported previously. Characterization of the static and dynamical properties of the new phase reveals the common features shared with previous metastable phases of Ta2O5. In particular, we show that the d-spacing of ~ 3.8 {AA} found in the X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of many previous experimental works, is actually the radius of the second Ta-Ta coordination shell as defined by radial distribution functions.
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Boron suboxide B6O, the hardest known oxide, has an R-3m crystal structure ({alpha}-B6O) that can be described as an oxygen-intercalated structure of {alpha}-boron, or, equivalently, as a cubic close packing of B12 icosahedra with two oxygen atoms occupying all octahedral voids in it. Here we show a new ground state of this compound at ambient conditions, Cmcm-B6O (b{eta}-B6O), which in all quantum-mechanical treatments that we tested (GGA, LDA, and hybrid functional HSE06) comes out to be slightly but consistently more stable. Increasing pressure and temperature further stabilize it with respect to the known {alpha}-B6O structure. b{eta}-B6O also has a slightly higher hardness and may be synthesized using different experimental protocols. We suggest that b{eta}-B6O is present in mixture with {alpha}-B6O, and its presence accounts for previously unexplained bands in the experimental Raman spectrum.
Crystal structure prediction is a central problem of theoretical crystallography and materials science, which until mid-2000s was considered intractable. Several methods, based on either energy landscape exploration$^{1,2}$ or, more commonly, global optimization$^{3-8}$, largely solved this problem and enabled fully non-empirical computational materials discovery$^{9,10}$. A major shortcoming is that, to avoid expensive calculations of the entropy, crystal structure prediction was done at zero Kelvin and searched for the global minimum of the enthalpy, rather than free energy. As a consequence, high-temperature phases (especially those which are not quenchable to zero temperature) could be missed. Here we develop an accurate and affordable solution, enabling crystal structure prediction at finite temperatures. Structure relaxation and fully anharmonic free energy calculations are done by molecular dynamics with a force field (which can be anything from a parametric force field for simpler cases to a trained on-the-fly machine learning interatomic potential), the errors of which are corrected using thermodynamic perturbation theory to yield accurate ab initio results. We test the accuracy of this method on metals (probing the P-T phase diagram of Al and Fe), a refractory intermetallide (WB), and a significantly ionic ceramic compound (Earth-forming silicate MgSiO3 at pressures and temperatures of the Earths lower mantle). We find that the hcp-phase of aluminum has a wider stability field than previously thought, and the temperature-induced transition $alpha$-$beta$ in WB occurs at 2789 K. It is also found that iron has hcp structure at conditions of the Earths inner core, and the much debated (and important for constraining Earths thermal structure) Clapeyron slope of the post-perovskite phase transition in MgSiO3 is 5.88 MPa/K.
Based on the unbiased structure prediction, we showed that the stable form of NiSi compound under the pressure of 100 and 200 GPa is the Pmmn-structure. Furthermore, we discovered a new stable phase - the deformed tetragonal CsCl-type structure with a = 2.174 {AA} and c = 2.69 {AA} at 400 GPa. Specifically, the sequence of high-pressure phase transitions is the following: the Pmmn-structure - below 213 GPa, the tetragonal CsCl-type - in the range 213-522 GPa, and cubic CsCl - higher than 522 GPa. As the CsCl-type structure is considered as the model structure of FeSi compound at the conditions of the Earths core, this result implies restrictions on the Fe-Ni isomorphic miscibility in FeSi.
Hydrogen-rich compounds are important for understanding the dissociation of dense molecular hydrogen, as well as searching for room temperature Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superconductors. A recent high pressure experiment reported the successful synthesis of novel insulating lithium polyhydrides when above 130 GPa. However, the results are in sharp contrast to previous theoretical prediction by PBE functional that around this pressure range all lithium polyhydrides (LiHn (n = 2-8)) should be metallic. In order to address this discrepancy, we perform unbiased structure search with first principles calculation by including the van der Waals interaction that was ignored in previous prediction to predict the high pressure stable structures of LiHn (n = 2-11, 13) up to 200 GPa. We reproduce the previously predicted structures, and further find novel compositions that adopt more stable structures. The van der Waals functional (vdW-DF) significantly alters the relative stability of lithium polyhydrides, and predicts that the stable stoichiometries for the ground-state should be LiH2 and LiH9 at 130-170 GPa, and LiH2, LiH8 and LiH10 at 180-200 GPa. Accurate electronic structure calculation with GW approximation indicates that LiH, LiH2, LiH7, and LiH9 are insulative up to at least 208 GPa, and all other lithium polyhydrides are metallic. The calculated vibron frequencies of these insulating phases are also in accordance with the experimental infrared (IR) data. This reconciliation with the experimental observation suggests that LiH2, LiH7, and LiH9 are the possible candidates for lithium polyhydrides synthesized in that experiment. Our results reinstate the credibility of density functional theory in description H-rich compounds, and demonstrate the importance of considering van der Waals interaction in this class of materials.
Reliable and robust methods of predicting the crystal structure of a compound, based only on its chemical composition, is crucial to the study of materials and their applications. Despite considerable ongoing research efforts, crystal structure prediction remains a challenging problem that demands large computational resources. Here we propose an efficient approach for first-principles crystal structure prediction. The new method explores and finds crystal structures by tiling together elementary tetrahedra that are energetically favorable and geometrically matching each other. This approach has three distinguishing features: a favorable building unit, an efficient calculation of local energy, and a stochastic Monte Carlo simulation of crystal growth. By applying the method to the crystal structure prediction of various materials, we demonstrate its validity and potential as a promising alternative to current methods.
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