No Arabic abstract
Using $textit{ab-initio}$ crystal structure prediction we study the high-pressure phase diagram of $textit{A}BiO_3$ bismuthates ($A$=Ba, Sr, Ca) in a pressure range up to 100$~$GPa. All compounds show a transition from the low-pressure perovskite structure to highly distorted, low-symmetry phases at high pressures (PD transition), and remain charge disproportionated and insulating up to the highest pressure studied. The PD transition at high pressures in bismuthates can be understood as a combined effect of steric arguments and of the strong tendency of bismuth to charge-disproportionation. In fact, distorted structures permit to achieve a very efficient atomic packing, and at the same time, to have Bi-O bonds of different lengths. The shift of the PD transition to higher pressures with increasing cation size within the $textit{A}BiO_3$ series can be explained in terms of chemical pressure.
In this work we provide an exhaustive study of the photemission spectrum of paramagnetic FeO under pressure using a refined version of our recently derived many-body effective energy theory (MEET). We show that, within a nonmagnetic description of the paramagnetic phase, the MEET gives an overall good description of the photoemission spectrum at ambient pressure as well as the changes it undergoes by increasing pressure. In particular at ambient pressure the band gap opens between the mixed Fe $t_{2g}$ and O $2p$ states and the Fe 4s states and, moreover, a $d$-$d$ gap opens, which is compatible with a high-spin configuration (hence nonzero local magnetic moments as observed in experiment), whereas decreasing pressure the band gap tends to close, $t_{2g}$ states tend to become fully occupied and $e_{g}$ fully unoccupied, which is compatible with a low-spin configuration (hence a collapse of the magnetic moments as observed in experiment). This is a remarkable result, since, within a nonmagnetic description of the paramagnetic phase, the MEET is capable to correctly describe the photoemission spectrum and the spin configuration at ambient as well as high pressure. For comparison we report the band gap values obtained using density-functional theory with a hybrid functional containing screened exchange (HSE06) and a variant of the $GW$ method (self-consistent COHSEX), which are reliable for the description of the antiferromagnetic phase. Both methods open a gap at ambient pressure, although, by construction, they give a low-spin configuration; increasing pressure they correctly describes the band gap closing. We also report the photoemission spectrum of the metallic phase obtained with one-shot fully-dynamical $GW$ on top of LDA, which gives a spectrum very similar to DMFT results from literature.
We propose an insulating 2D phase of IrO$_{2}$, predicted by $textit{ab initio}$ evolutionary algorithms. The predicted phase is a van der Waals crystal, in which Ir forms a triangular lattice, and is energetically competitive with the metastable spinel phase, observed experimentally. Electronic structure calculations show that the magnetic properties of this phase are highly nontrivial, with an almost perfect degeneracy of 120$^{circ}$ $textit{Neel}$ and $Y$-stripe orders, and unusually soft magnetic moments. The resulting behavior, which we term $textit{easy plane anisotropy}$, is entirely different from what is realized in previously-explored Kitaev honeycomb lattices. Our results thus suggest that IrO$_{2}$ may be an ideal candidate to realize highly unusual magnetic properties.
While the ongoing search to discover new high-entropy systems is slowly expanding beyond metals, a rational and effective method for predicting in silico the solid solution forming ability of multi-component systems remains yet to be developed. In this article, we propose a novel high-throughput approach, called LTVC, for estimating the transition temperature of a solid solution: ab-initio energies are incorporated into a mean field statistical mechanical model where an order parameter follows the evolution of disorder. The LTVC method is corroborated by Monte Carlo simulations and the results from the current most reliable data for binary, ternary, quaternary and quinary systems (96.6%; 90.7%; 100% and 100%, of correct solid solution predictions, respectively). By scanning through the many thousands of systems available in the AFLOW consortium repository, it is possible to predict a plethora of previously unknown potential quaternary and quinary solid solutions for future experimental validation.
BaBiO3 is a well-known example of a 3D charge density wavecompound, in which the CDW behavior is induced by charge disproportionation at the Bi site. At ambient pressure, this compound is a charge-ordered insulator, but little is known about its high-pressure behavior. In this work, we study from first-principles the high-pressure phase diagram of BaBiO3 using phonon modes analysis and evolutionary crystal structure prediction. We show that charge disproportionation is very robust in this compound and persists up to 100 GPa. This causes the system to remain insulating up to the highest pressure we studied.
A new layered perovskite-type oxide Ba$_2$RhO$_4$ was synthesized by a high-pressure technique with the support of convex-hull calculations. The crystal and electronic structure were studied by both experimental and computational tools. Structural refinements for powder x-ray diffraction data showed that Ba$_2$RhO$_4$ crystallizes in a K$_2$NiF$_4$-type structure, isostructural to Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ and Ba$_2$IrO$_4$. Magnetic, resistivity, and specific heat measurements for polycrystalline samples of Ba$_2$RhO$_4$ indicate that the system can be characterized as a correlated metal. Despite the close similarity to its Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ counterpart in the electronic specific heat coefficient and the Wilson ratio, Ba$_2$RhO$_4$ shows no signature of superconductivity down to 0.16 K. Whereas the Fermi surface topology has reminiscent pieces of Sr$_2$RuO$_4$, an electron-like e$_g$-($d_{x^2-y^2}$) band descends below the Fermi level, making of this compound unique also as a metallic counterpart of the spin-orbit-coupled Mott insulator Ba$_2$IrO$_4$.