Ab initio calculation of structural,lattice dynamical,and thermal properties of cubic silicon carbide

We present first-principles calculations of the structural, lattice dynamical, and thermal properties as well as Raman results for cubic silicon carbide (3C SiC). The plane-wave pseudopotential approach to density functional theory (DFT ) in the local density approximation has been used to calculate the equilibrium properties of 3C SiC, i.e., the ground-state energy, the band structure, the valence electron density, the lattice constant, the bulk modulus, its pressure derivative, and the ionicity factor of the chemical bonds. The linear-response theory within DFT has been used to obtain the phonon frequencies, the eigenvectors, and the mean-square atomic displacements. Furthermore, we calculated the mode Grueisen parameters, the internal-strain parameter, the elastic constants, the Born effective charge, and the high-frequency dielectric constant. The specific heat at constant volume and at constant pressure, the thermal expansion coefficient, the temperature dependence of the lattice constant, and that of the isothermal and adiabatic bulk modulus have been derived within the quasi-harmonic approximation. Finally, the second-order Raman spectrum of 3C SiC has been calculated using phenomenological polarizability coefficients and ab initio frequencies and eigenvectors. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The structural,electronic, elastic,vibration and thermodynamic properties of GdMg

We have investigated the structural, elastic, electronic, vibration and thermodynamic properties of GdMg alloy using the methods of density functional theory within the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) for the exchange-correlation functional. We have presented the results on the basic physical parameters, such as the lattice constant, bulk modulus, pressure derivative of bulk modulus with and without spin-polarization (SP), second-order elastic constants, Zener anisotropy factor, Poisson's ratio, Young's modulus, and isotropic shear modulus. The thermodynamic properties of the considered compound are obtained through the quasi-harmonic Debye model. In order to obtain further information, we have also studied the pressure and temperature-dependent behavior of the volume, bulk modulus, thermal expansion coefficient, heat capacity, and Debye temperature in a wide temperature range of 0–1200 K. We have also calculated phonon frequencies and one-phonon density of states for B2 structure of GdMg compound. The temperature-dependent behavior of heat capacity and entropy obtained from phonon density of states for GdMg compound in B2 phase is also presented.     

First-principles study of structural,elastic, electronic and vibrational properties of BiCoO3

We used density functional theory (DFT) to study the structural, elastic, electronic, and lattice dynamical properties of tetragonal BiCoO₃ applying the “norm-conserving” pseudopotentials within the local spin density approximation (LSDA). The calculated equilibrium lattice parameters and atomic displacements are in agreement with the available experimental and theoretical results. Moreover, the structural stability of tetragonal BiCoO₃ were confirmed by the calculated elastic constants. In addition, the elastic properties of polycrystalline aggregates including bulk, shear and Young's moduli, and Poisson's ratio are also determined. The electronic band structure, total and partial density of states (DOS and PDOS) with ferromagnetic spin configuration are obtained. The results show that tetragonal BiCoO₃ has an indirect band gap with both up- and down-spin configurations and its bonding behavior is of covalent nature. We compute Born effective charge (BEC) which is found to be quite anisotropic of Bi, Co and O atoms. The infrared and Raman active phonon mode frequencies at the Г point are found. The phonon dispersion curves exhibit imaginary frequencies which lead from the high-symmetry tetragonal phase to low-symmetry rhombohedral phase in BiCoO₃. The six independent elastic constants, including bulk, shear and Young's moduli, and Poisson's ratio, complete BEC tensor and phonon dispersion relations in tetragonal BiCoO₃ are predicted for the first time. Results of the calculations are compared with the existing experimental and theoretical data.     

Phonon, IR, and Raman spectra, NMR parameters, and elastic constant calculations for AlH3 polymorphs

The electronic structure, lattice dynamics, and mechanical properties of AlH(3) phases have been studied by density functional calculations. The chemical bonding in different polymorphs of AlH(3) are evaluated on the basis of electronic structures, charge density analysis, and atomic charges, as well as bond overlap population analysis and the Born effective charges. The phonon dispersion relations and phonon density of states of all the polymorphs of AlH(3) are calculated by direct force-constant method. Application of pressure induces seqauence of phase transitions in β-AlH(3) which are understood from the phonon dispersive curves of the involved phases. The previously predicted phases (Chem. Mater. 2008, 20, 5997) are found to be dynamically stable. The calculated single crystal elastic constants reveal that all the studied AlH(3) polymorphs are easily compressible. The chemical bonding of these polymorphs have noticeable covalent character (except the hp2 phase) according to the present chemical bonding analyses. For all these polymorphs, the NMR-related parameters, such as isotropic chemical shielding, quadrupolar coupling constant, and quadrupolar asymmetry, are also calculated. All IR- and Raman-active phonon frequencies, as well as the corresponding intensities, are calculated for all the AlH(3) polymorphs and are compared with available experimental results.     

3C-SiC的结构和热力学性质

利用第一性原理平面波模守恒赝势密度泛函理论研究了3C-SiC的结构, 其零温(0 K)零压下的晶格常数、体弹模量及其对压强的一阶导数、弹性常数的计算结果与实验值和其它理论计算结果相符合. 通过准谐德拜模型, 得到了不同温度不同压强下的热容和德拜温度, 发现热容随着压强增加而减小, 德拜温度随压强增加而增加, 并成功地获得了相对晶格常数、相对体积、体弹模量、热膨胀系数与温度和压强的关系.     

High pressure study on the phonon spectra and thermal properties in hafnium nitride and zirconium nitride

We report ab initio calculations of the thermal properties for transition metal nitrides, hafnium and zirconium nitride at ambient and high pressures. The assessment of thermodynamical properties like lattice specific heat, vibrational energy, internal energy and entropy for two nitrides has been carried out. The basic calculations of ingredient phonon density of states for the determination of thermal properties have been done using density functional perturbation theory including external perturbations like strains and electric fields in periodic systems. The ground state properties such as equilibrium lattice constants and bulk modulus obtained for two nitrides are in good agreement with the available experimental value. The calculated pressure variation of the phonon density of states shows trend similar to the experimental pressure dependent Raman spectra. The lattice specific heat, internal energy, entropy and Helmholtz energy increases with pressure.     

Ab initio all-electron periodic Hartree-Fock study of hydrostatic compression of pentaerythritol tetranitrate

We present a computational study of hydrostatic compression effects on the pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) energetic material up to 22.7 GPa by means of the ab initio all-electron periodic Hartree-Fock quantum mechanical method with the STO-3G Gaussian basis set. We fitted the calculated volume-energy relation to the energy SJEOS polynomial function from which we obtained the compression dependence of the pressure (P), the bulk modulus (B), and its pressure derivative (B'). We also fitted the experimental volume-pressure relation to the pressure SJEOS polynomial function, which allowed us to calculate the experimental bulk modulus (B(exp)) and its pressure derivative (). Our calculated values, B = 6.73 GPa and B' = 24.63, are in reasonable agreement with the values B(exp) = 8.48 GPa and = 14.42 from our fit to the experimental X-ray data and with the value B(exp) = 9.8 GPa that was derived from the experimental elastic constants. In addition, we present a discussion on how the lattice vectors and the internal coordinates (i.e., bond lengths, bond angles, and torsion angles) of the C(CH(2)ONO(2))(4) molecules in the PETN lattice change during hydrostatic compression of the crystal. Our calculated results suggest that the C(CH(2)ONO(2))(4) molecules cannot be considered as being rigid but are in fact flexible, accommodating lattice compression through torsions, bendings in their bond angles, and contractions in their bond lengths. At pressures higher than about 8 GPa, however, both the C(CH(2)ONO(2))(4) molecules and the c lattice vector seem to stiffen somewhat. The a lattice vector does not exhibit this stiffening. As a consequence, the pressure dependence of the c/a ratio shows a minimum at about 8 GPa.     

Nonequilibrium solid phase formation studied by lattice dynamics calculation and ion beam mixing in an immiscible Co-Ag system

For the equilibrium immiscible Co-Ag system, a proven realistic ab initio derived n-body potential is applied to study the nonequilibrium solid phase formation at three chemical stoichiometries of Co/Ag = 1:3, 1:1, and 3:1. To predict the structural stability, the elastic constants and the phonon spectra are calculated at the chosen stoichiometries with a total of eight hypothetical crystalline structures. The calculated results suggest that four compounds, that is, D0(3) CoAg3, B1 CoAg, B2 CoAg, and D0(3) Co3Ag, are unstable, as they all feature negative elastic constants as well as imaginary phonons, and that another four compounds of both fcc-type L1(2) and hcp-type D0(19) structures at chemical stoichiometries of Co/Ag = 1:3 and 3:1, respectively, may elastically be favored and therefore obtainable under some specific conditions. It is also found that all the calculated elastic constants and phonon spectra are coincident within the framework of the elastic theory. Moreover, the calculated elastic constants are in good agreement with those acquired directly from ab initio calculations, lending support to the validity of the ab initio derived n-body Co-Ag potential as well as its resultant elastic constants and the phonon spectra. Interestingly, some of the predicted nonequilibrium solid phases, that is, two hcp-type compounds at chemical stoichiometries of Co/Ag = 1:3 and 3:1, respectively, are indeed obtained in ion beam mixing experiments and their lattice constants determined by diffraction analysis are in good agreement with those from calculations.     

High-pressure study of lithium azide from density-functional calculations

The structural, electronic, optical, and vibrational properties of LiN(3) under high pressure have been studied using plane wave pseudopotentials within the generalized gradient approximation for the exchange and correlation functional. The calculated lattice parameters agree quite well with experiments. The calculated bulk modulus value is found to be 23.23 GPa, which is in good agreement with the experimental value of 20.5 GPa. Our calculations reproduce well the trends in high-pressure behavior of the structural parameters. The present results show that the compressibility of LiN(3) crystal is anisotropic and the crystallographic b-axis is more compressible when compared to a- and c-axes, which is also consistent with experiment. Elastic constants are predicted, which still awaits experimental confirmation. The computed elastic constants clearly show that LiN(3) is a mechanically stable system and the calculated elastic constants follow the order C(33) > C(11) > C(22), implying that the LiN(3) lattice is stiffer along the c-axis and relatively weaker along the b-axis. Under the application of pressure the magnitude of the electronic band gap value decreases, indicating that the system has the tendency to become semiconductor at high pressures. The optical properties such as refractive index, absorption spectra, and photoconductivity along the three crystallographic directions have been calculated at ambient as well as at high pressures. The calculated refractive index shows that the system is optically anisotropic and the anisotropy increases with an increase in pressure. The observed peaks in the absorption and photoconductivity spectra are found to shift toward the higher energy region as pressure increases, which implies that in LiN(3) decomposition is favored under pressure with the action of light. The vibrational frequencies for the internal and lattice modes of LiN(3) at ambient conditions as well as at high pressures are calculated from which we predict that the response of the lattice modes toward pressure is relatively high when compared to the internal modes of the azide ion.     

Density functional theory calculations of pressure effects on the vibrational structure of alpha-RDX

Pressure effects on the vibrational structure of alpha-RDX were examined using density functional theory (DFT) up to 4 GPa. The calculated vibrational frequencies at ambient conditions are in better agreement with experimental data than are previous single molecule calculations. The calculations showed the following pressure-induced changes: (i) larger shifts for lattice modes and for internal modes associated with the CH(2) and NO(2) groups as compared to the pressure shifts for modes associated with the triazine ring, (ii) enhancement of mixing between different vibrations, for example, between NN stretching and CH(2) scissor, wagging, twisting vibrations, and (iii) increase in mixing between translational lattice vibrations and the NO(2) wagging vibrations, reducing the distinction between internal and lattice modes. The calculated volume and lattice constants at ambient pressure are larger than the experimental values, due to the inability of the present density functional approach to correctly account for van der Waals forces. Consequently, the pressure-induced frequency shifts of many modes deviate substantially from experimental data for pressures below 1 GPa. With increasing pressure, both the lattice constants and the frequency shifts agree more closely with experimental values.     

Structural and vibrational properties of solid nitromethane under high pressure by density functional theory

The structural, vibrational, and electronic properties of solid nitromethane under hydrostatic pressure of up to 20 GPa have been studied using density functional theory. The changes of cell volume, the lattice constants, and the molecular geometry of solid nitromethane under hydrostatic loading are examined, and the bulk modulus B0 and its pressure derivative B0' are fitted from the volume-pressure relation. Our theoretical results are compared with available experiments. The change of electron band gap of nitromethane under high pressure is also discussed. Based on the optimized crystal structures, the vibrational frequencies for the internal and lattice modes of the nitromethane crystal at ambient and high pressures are computed, and the pressure-induced frequency shifts of these modes are discussed.     

闪锌矿ZnTe高温高压下的弹性及热力学性质

利用第一性原理平面波赝势密度泛函理论并结合准谐德拜模型计算了闪锌矿结构ZnTe在高温高压下的弹性及热力学性质.得到了绝对零度、零压强时的晶格常数为0.6095 nm,仅比实验值(0.6103 nm)小0.1%.计算的体弹模量及弹性常数也与实验值符合较好.根据计算的高压下的弹性常数,得到其相变点约为10 GPa,与已知的实验值一致.通过准谐德拜模型,得到了常温下(T=300 K)的德拜温度为249 K,并得到了不同温度、不同压强下的热容.热容随着压强增加而减小,在高温、高压下,热容接近于Dulong-Petit极限.     

The first-principle studies of the elastic,electronic, and vibrational properties of L-alanine

The calculation in the present work is conducted with the help of CRYSTAL’17 package using PBE method, including gradient approximation and taking into account van der Waals forces as well as the B3LYP hybrid functional. Crystal structure and chemical bond, elastic properties, equation of state, structural properties under pressure, and vibrational properties are studied. The elastic constants of single crystal and polycrystalline properties are obtained; anisotropic nature of the crystal is determined. The impact of hydrostatic compression up to pressure of 7.5 GPa on the L-alanine properties is studied. The effect of taking into account the forces of intermolecular interaction on the accuracy of calculation of lattice constants and intermolecular distances is shown. The atom charges and bond overlap population in molecules are determined within the framework of the Mulliken scheme. The total and partial density of states is calculated and it is established that the transition from valence band to conduction band is performed by electrons from oxygen atoms to carbon atoms of the –COO group. The average value of the tensor component of the polarizability, permittivity, and piezoelectric stress coefficients were 40.67 Å³, 2.08, and ? 4.25 pm/V, relatively. The obtained dependence of the lattice constants demonstrated occurrence of intersection within pressure interval of about 1.8 GPa, the fact that has earlier been established experimentally. It has been shown that C–C and C–N intramolecular distances reduce with pressure increase, as for the –COO group, C1–O1 distances decrease, while C1–O2 distances increase. The mode Grüneisen parameters, obtained from ab initio calculations for the first time, revealed the increase in the vibration frequency of the –NH₃ group, while other vibration frequencies decrease with increasing pressure.

     

Pressure Effects on Thermodynamics of Phase Behavior in Polystyrene/Methylcyclohexane Solutions

The calculations presented in this paper are based on the Sanchez-Lacombe(SL)lattice fluid theory.The interaction energy parameter,g12/k,required in this approach was obtained by fitting the cloud points of polystyrene(PS)/methylcyclohexane(MCH)polymer solutions under pressure.The SL lattice fluid theory was used to calculate the spinodals,the binodals,and the Flory-Huggins(FH)interaction parameter of the solutions.The calculated results show that the SL lattice fluid theory can describe the dependences of thermodynamics of PS/MCH solutions on temperature and pressure very well.However,the calculated enthalpy and the excess volume changes indicate that the Clausius-Clapeyron equation cannot be suitable to describe pressure effect on PS/MCH solutions.Further analysis on the thermodynamics of this system under pressure shows that the role of entropy is more important than the excess volume in the present case.     

Ab initio Predictions of Structural and Thermodynamic Properties of Zr2AlC Under High Pressure and High Temperature

The structural and thermodynamic properties of Zr₂AlC at high pressure and high temperature are investigated by first principles density functional theory method. The calculated lattice parameters of Zr₂AlC are in good agreement with the available theoretical data. The pressure dependences of the elastic constants, bulk modulus, shear modulus, Young's modulus, and Vickers hardness of Zr₂AlC are successfully obtained. The elastic anisotropy is examined through the computation of the direction dependence of Young's modulus. By using the quasiharmonic Debye model, the thermodynamic properties including the Debye temperature, heat capacity, volume thermal expansion coefficient, and Grüneisen parameter at high pressure and temperature are predicted for the first time.     

Structural,elastic, electronic and optical properties of the newly synthesized monoclinic Zintl phase BaIn2P2

The present study explores the structural, elastic, electronic and optical properties of the newly synthesized monoclinic Zintl phase BaIn₂P₂ using a pseudopotential plane-wave method in the framework of density functional theory within the generalized gradient approximation. The calculated lattice constants and internal coordinates are in very good agreement with the experimental findings. Independent single-crystal elastic constants as well as numerical estimations of the bulk modulus, the shear modulus, Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio, Pugh's indicator of brittle/ductile behaviour and the Debye temperature for the corresponding polycrystalline phase were obtained. The elastic anisotropy of BaIn₂P₂ was investigated using three different indexes. The calculated electronic band structure and the total and site-projected l-decomposed densities of states reveal that this compound is a direct narrow-band-gap semiconductor. Under the influence of hydrostatic pressure, the direct D–D band gap transforms into an indirect B-D band gap at 4.08 GPa, then into a B–Γ band gap at 10.56 GPa. Optical macroscopic constants, namely, the dielectric function, refractive index, extinction coefficient, reflectivity coefficient, absorption coefficient and energy-loss function, for polarized incident radiation along the [100], [010] and [001] directions were investigated.     

Structural and dynamical stability of cadmium nitride using first principles calculations

We report the results of a theoretical study on the behavior of the structural parameters, electronic band structure, vibrational and thermodynamical properties of transition metal nitride, CdN in the rocksalt (RS), NiAs (P63/mmc) and CuS (B₁₈) phases at ambient pressure. The calculations are based on the ab-initio plane-wave pseudopotential density functional theory (DFT), within the generalized gradient approximations (GGA) for the exchange and correlation functional. The calculated values of lattice parameters, bulk modulus and its first order pressure derivative are in good agreement with other reports. A linear response approach to the density functional theory is used to derive the phonon frequencies, phonon densities of states and thermodynamical properties. We discuss the contribution of the phonons in the dynamical stability of CdN and detailed analysis of thermodynamical properties of specific heat and Debye temperature for CdN in all considered structures.     

Half-metallicity,magnetism, mechanical,thermal, and phonon properties of FeCrTe and FeCrSe half-Heusler alloys under pressure

The half-metallicity of Heusler alloys is quite sensitive to high pressure and disorder. To understand this phenomenon better, we systematically studied the half-metallic nature, magnetism, phonon, and thermomechanical properties of FeCrTe and FeCrSe Heusler alloys under high pressure using ab initio calculations based on density functional theory. The ground-state lattice constants for FeCrTe and FeCrSe alloys are 5.93 and 5.57 Å, respectively, consistent with available theoretical results. Formation energy, cohesive energy, elastic constants, and phonon dispersion confirmed that both compounds are thermodynamically and mechanically stable. The FeCrTe and FeCrSe alloys showed a half-metallic character with a band gap of 0.68 and 0.58 eV at 0 GPa pressure, respectively, and magnetic moments of 2.01 μ_B for both alloys, using generalized gradient approximation (GGA) approximation. FeCrTe alloy changes from metallic to half-metallic above 30 GPa pressure using GGA + U. The elastic properties were scrutinized, and it was found that, at 0 GPa pressure, FeCrTe is ductile, and FeCrSe is brittle. Under pressure, FeCrSe becomes brittle above 10 GPa pressure. Average sound velocity V_m, Debye temperature Ɵ_D, and heat capacity C_V were predicted under pressure. These outcomes will improve the integration of Fe-based half-Heusler alloys in spintronic devices.     

High Pressure Phase Stability of Ti with Self-consistent ab initio Lattice Dynamics Approach

The traditional quasiharmonic approximation cannot predict the phase diagram of Ti accurately, due to the well-known soften phonon modes of the β-Ti. By means of self-consistent ab initio lattice dynamics (SCAILD) method, in which the effects of phonon-phonon interactions are considered, the phonon dispersion relations at finite temperature for Ti are calculated. From the phonon dispersions, we extrapolat the acoustic velocities and harmonic elastic constants. The dynamical stable regions and phase diagram of Ti are also predicted successfully. The results show that SCAILD method can be designed to work for strongly anharmonic systems where the QHA fails.     

Atomistic simulation of Si–Ge clathrate alloys

The structural, elastic, vibrational and thermodynamic properties of Si–Ge clathrate alloys have been investigated by lattice dynamics (LD) and molecular dynamics (MD) calculations based on the Tersoff’s potential. The structural properties, static cohesive energies and bulk moduli determined from the LD simulations agree with the results of the first-principles approach in the literature. In addition, we estimated the Debye temperatures from the calculated elastic constants. They demonstrate a decay trend as the Ge composition increases. The vibrational properties, especially the phonon density of states, were investigated in comparison with those of the ordinary Si–Ge diamond-like alloys. The MD calculations were then carried out for the clathrate alloys above their respective Debye temperatures to obtain the pair correlation functions and the internal energies.