First-principles study on structural,electronic and ferroelectric properties of Bi2VO5.5 compound

A first-principles investigation of the origin of ferroelectricity in the Aurivillius compound Bi₂VO_5.5 is presented. Calculations with the density functional theory, in conjunction with the modern theory of polarization, allowed us to study the structural, electronic, and polar properties of two configurations built with oxygen vacancies, causing a charge imbalance and a subsequent displacement of the ions, generating two maximum polarizations, one of 14.75 μC/cm² and one of 4.31 μC/cm² along [011] direction. Electron localization function schemes were used to identify the asymmetry of charges in (001), (010) and (100) planes. The results obtained in this study establish that the origin of ferroelectricity is due to the displacement of the ions caused by oxygen vacancies and the asymmetric distribution of the isolated pair of Bi ions. On the other hand, the bandgap calculations and the results of P_s establish that Bi₂VO_5.5 is a candidate ferro-photovoltaic material.     

Negative thermal expansion in NbF_3 and NbOF_2:A comparative theoretical study

Thermal expansion control is always an obstructive factor and challenging in high precision engineering field. Here,the negative thermal expansion of Nb F_3 and Nb OF_2 was predicted by first-principles calculation with density functional theory and the quasi-harmonic approximation(QHA). We studied the total charge density, thermal vibration, and lattice dynamic to investigate the thermal expansion mechanism. We found that the presence of O induced the relatively strong covalent bond in Nb OF_2, thus weakening the transverse vibration of F and O in Nb OF_2, compared with the case of Nb F_3.In this study, we proposed a way to tailor negative thermal expansion of metal fluorides by introducing the oxygen atoms.The present work not only predicts two NTE compounds, but also provides an insight on thermal expansion control by designing chemical bond type.     

水化硅酸钙纳米压痕分子动力学模拟方法优化

针对水化硅酸钙纳米压痕模型忽视了压头与基底之间相互作用的问题，由尺寸差异引起的金刚石压头难以计算的问题，以及Wittmann模型无法得到实际接触面积的问题，提出了新的模型与计算方法．结合分子动力学方法，采用金刚石压头-Wittmann模型基底的组合方式构建无定形态水化硅酸钙纳米压痕试验模型．在建模阶段，考虑到压头模型与基底模型粒子间尺寸差异，提出了等比例替换模型，通过公式推导并就不同尺寸模拟结果验证了等比例替换模型的可行性．在计算阶段，提出了局部前处理的弛豫方法进行模拟．确定最大荷载位置处的接触面积为546 nm2，进而求出水化硅酸钙模型硬度H为0.84 GPa、折合模量Er为30.52 GPa．并通过纳米压痕试验，验证了模拟结果的准确性，证明了模型的科学性，对今后水化硅酸钙(C-S-H)纳米层面的模拟具有重要借鉴意义．     

Ab initio and Monte Carlo studies of phase transitions and magnetic properties of YCrO3: Heisenberg model

By using the density functional theory (DFT) and Monte Carlo simulations (MCS) with the Heisenberg model, we have studied magnetic properties of the bulk perovskite YCrO₃. The exchange couplings of the Heisenberg model and the magnetic anisotropy are investigated. The 110 direction in the crystalline structure of the compound has shown the minimum energy, it is the easy magnetic direction. Using Monte Carlo simulations, the magnetizations behavior, the effects of system parameters and the critical exponents of the compound YCrO₃ are implemented. It is shown that the bulk perovskite YCrO₃ belongs to the 3D Heisenberg universality class.     

A Theoretical study on the charge and discharge states of Na-ion battery cathode material,Na1+xFePO4F

Na₂FePO₄F is a promising cathode material for a Na-ion battery because of its high electronic capacity and good cycle performance. In this work, first principle calculations combined with cluster expansion and the Monte Carlo method have been applied to analyze the charge and discharge processes of Na₂FePO₄F by examining the voltage curve and the phase diagram. As a result of the density functional theory calculation and experimental verification with structural analysis, we found that the most stable structure of Na_1.5FePO₄F has the P2₁/b11 space group, which has not been reported to date. The estimated voltage curve has two clear plateaus caused by the two-phase structure composed of P2₁/b11 Na_1.5FePO₄F and Pbcn Na₂FePO₄F or Na₁FePO₄F and separated along the c-axis direction. The phase diagram shows the stability of the phase-separated structure. Considering that Na₂FePO₄F has diffusion paths in the a- and c-axis directions, Na₂FePO₄F has both innerphase and interphase diffusion paths. We suggest that the stable two-phase structure and the diffusion paths to both the innerphase and interphases are a key for the very clear plateau. We challenge to simulate a nonequilibrium state at high rate discharge with high temperature by introducing a coordinate-dependent chemical potential. The simulation shows agreement with the experimental discharge curve on the disappearance of the two plateaus. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

熵的一种通俗教法

熵如力、能量和动量一样是物理学中一个重要概念,若能用一种通俗易懂的方法设计熵的教学,对文科物理的教学有重要意义.为此本文提出了一种通俗的熵的教法,这一教法不需要学生学习热力学第二定律也可以建立熵的概念.具体教学设计如下:通过日常生活例子引入熵的概念(也就是玻尔兹曼熵),设计两个例子让学生会计算熵,通过具体问题的讨论让学生充分理解熵的意义,通过一个实例由玻尔兹曼熵引入克劳修斯熵公式,设计一个演示实验强化教学效果,将熵与环境保护联系起来融入人文情怀,最后还强调了熵计算的不同层次.教学设计完全采用基于问题学习(PBL)的教学模式.     

Phase stability and temperature effect in ScX (X=S,Se and Te) compounds

Based on first-principles calculations, the structural stability and temperature effect in ScX (X=S, Se and Te) compounds are studied with three typical structures of B1 (NaCl-type), hcp (NiAs-type) and β-hcp (inverse Li₂O₂-type). Their dynamic stability has been verified using phonon mode analysis and molecular dynamics simulations. From the total energy calculations, we find that the most stable ground state structures are B1 for ScS, and hcp for ScSe and ScTe, respectively. Moreover, structural stabilities at finite temperature are studied with the combination of phonon dependent dynamics analysis and first-principles calculations, which reveals a phase transition from hcp to B1 in ScSe around 230 K and a phase transition from hcp to β-hcp in ScTe around 460 K, in accordance with experimental findings. The energy barrier and pathway along the phase transformation from hcp to β-hcp ScTe are also calculated and analyzed by the solid-state nudged elastic band method.     

Strain and electric-field induced tunable electronic properties of blue phosphorus-GeS/SnS/SnSe (orthorhombic) vdW heterostructures

In this work, we composite blue phosphorous (blueP) and monolayer GeS/SnS/SnSe through van der Waals (vdW) force interaction. It is found that blueP-GeS/SnS heterostructures are stable and form type-II band alignments, which can effectively promote the separation of photoinduced carriers. We perform a systematic theoretical study of interlayer coupling effects and band realignment of blueP-GeS/SnS/SnSe heterostructures after the strain and electric-field are imposed. BlueP and GeS/SnS/SnSe are twisted with different angles, and the theoretical framework of bands alignment and carriers' separation are established. The results show that the electronic properties of independent blueP and GeS/SnS/SnSe can be roughly maintained. When strain is applied, the band alignment shows significant adjustability by changing the external strain. Besides, the blueP-SnSe heterostructure show type-II characteristic in the range from -0.25 V/Å to -0.1 V/Å. Our theoretical calculation proves that strain and electric field engineering are two useful methods to design novel electronic devices.