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The energy differences between the ground state body-centered structure and closed-packed face-centered structure for transition metals in the middle of the series show unusually large disagreements when they are obtained by the thermochemical approach based on the analysis of experimental data or by first-principles electronic structure calculations. Considering a typical example, the lattice stability of Mo, we present a solution to this long-standing problem. We carry out ab initio molecular dynamics simulations for the two phases at high temperature and show that the configurational energy difference approaches the value derived by means of the thermochemical approach. The main contribution to the effect comes from the modification of the canonical band structure due to anharmonic thermal motion at high temperature., QC 20100525

We study the structural properties of ultrathin AgxPd1-x films on top of a Ru(0001) substrate. Effective interatomic interactions, obtained from first-principles calculations, have been used in Monte Carlo simulations to derive the distribution of the alloy components in a four-monolayer (4-ML) Ag-Pd film. Though Ag-Pd alloys show complete solubility in the bulk, the thin film geometry leads to a pronounced segregation between Ag and Pd atoms with a strong preference of Ag atoms toward the surface and Pd atoms toward the interface. The theoretical prediction of this double-segregation effect is strongly supported by photoelectron spectroscopy experiments carried out for 4-ML thin films. We also show, in an additional experiment, that even in the case where initially 1 ML Ag is buried under 6 ML Pd, the whole Ag ML segregates to the surface., QC 20100525

The thermodynamic properties of the Mo-Ru binary sigma-phase are investigated using a combination of ab initio calculations and CALPHAD modeling. Total energy calculations have been performed for the complete set of 32 end-member compounds of a 5-sublattice compound energy model. The internal crystallographic parameters for each end-member compound have been determined by minimising the total energy. A simpler, 3-sublattice model of the Mo-Ru a-phase is formulated on the basis of calculated total energies. The site occupancy is acquired by minimising the free energy given by the compound energy model. A strong preference of Mo and Ru towards high-coordination sites and icosahedral sites in the Mo-Ru a-phase is found and analysed in terms of the electronic structure., QC 20100525

Phase equilibria in alloys to a great extent are governed by the ordering behavior of alloy species. One of the important goals of alloy theory is therefore to be able to simulate these kinds of phenomena on the basis of first principles. Unfortunately, it is impossible, even with present day total energy software, to calculate entirely from first principles the changes in the internal energy caused by changes of the atomic configurations in systems with several thousand atoms at the rate required by statistical thermodynamics simulations. The time-honored solution to this problem that we shall review in this paper is to obtain the configurational energy needed in the simulations from an Ising-type Hamiltonian with so-called effective cluster interactions associated with specific changes in the local atomic configuration. Finding accurate and reliable effective cluster interactions, which take into consideration all relevant thermal excitations, on the basis of first-principles methods is a formidable task. However, it pays off by opening new exciting perspectives and possibilities for materials science as well as for physics itself. In this paper we outline the basic principles and methods for calculating effective cluster interactions in metallic alloys. Special attention is paid to the source of errors in different computational schemes. We briefly review first-principles methods concentrating on approximations used in density functional theory calculations, Green's function method and methods for random alloys based on the coherent potential approximation. We formulate criteria for the validity of the supercell approach in the calculations of properties of random alloys. The generalized perturbation method, which is an effective and accurate tool for obtaining cluster interactions, is described in more detail. Concentrating mostly on the methodological side we give only a few examples of applications to the real systems. In particular, we show that the ground st, QC 20110525

We have used density functional theory calculations within the LDA+U formulation to investigate how small amounts of dissolved SiO2, GeO2, SnO2, or PbO2 affect the redox thermodynamics of ceria (CeO2). Compared to pure ceria, reduction is facilitated and the reducibility increases in the sequence of CeO2-SnO2, CeO2-GeO2, and CeO2-SiO2, which correlates with the decrease of the ionic radii of the solutes. For low solute concentrations, there is an inverse relation between high reducibility and the solution energy of tetravalent solutes. CeO2-PbO2 is unique in the sense that the initial reduction occurs by Pb(IV)double right arrow Pb(II) instead of the usual Ce(IV)double right arrow Ce(III) reaction. Among the investigated ceria compounds, CeO2-PbO2 has the lowest reduction energy and rather low solution energy. We have studied how the solution and reduction energies depend on the concentration of Si, Ge, Sn, Pb, Ti, Zr, Hf, and Th solute ions. While the solution energy increases monotonously with concentration, the reduction energy first decreases, as compared to pure ceria (except for Th, which exhibits a small increase), and with further increase of solute concentration, it either remains almost constant (Zr, Hf, and Th) or slightly increases (Ti, Si, Ge, and Sn).

The electronic structure and thermodynamic properties of CeO2 and Ce2O3 have been studied from first principles by the all-electron projector-augmented-wave (PAW) method, as implemented in the ab initio total-energy and molecular-dynamics program VASP (Vienna ab initio simulation package). The local density approximation (LDA)+U formalism has been used to account for the strong on-site Coulomb repulsion among the localized Ce 4f electrons. We discuss how the properties of CeO2 and Ce2O3 are affected by the choice of U as well as the choice of exchange-correlation potential, i.e., the local density approximation or the generalized gradient approximation. Further, reduction of CeO2, leading to formation of Ce2O3 and CeO2-x, and its dependence on U and exchange-correlation potential have been studied in detail. Our results show that by choosing an appropriate U it is possible to consistently describe structural, thermodynamic, and electronic properties of CeO2, Ce2O3, and CeO2-x, which enables modeling of redox processes involving ceria-based materials.

We describe an efficient first-principles method that can be used to calculate mixing enthalpies of transition metal nitrides with B1 structure and substitutional disorder at the metal sublattice. The technique is based on the density functional theory. The independent sublattice model is suggested for the treatment of disorder-induced local lattice relaxation effects. It supplements the description of the substitutional disorder within the coherent potential approximation. We demonstrate the excellent accuracy of the method by comparison with calculations performed by means of the projector augumented wave method on supercells constructed as special quasirandom structures. At the same time, the efficiency of the technique allows for total energy calculations on a very fine mesh of concentrations which enables a reliable calculation of the second concentration derivative of the alloy total energy. This is a first step towards first-principles predictions of concentrations and temperature intervals where the alloy decomposition proceeds via the spinodal mechanism. We thus calculate electronic structure, lattice parameter, and mixing enthalpies of the quasibinary alloy c-Ti1-xAlxN. The lattice parameter follows Vegard's law at low fractions of AlN but deviates increasingly with increasing Al content. We show that the asymmetry of the mixing enthalpy and its second concentration derivative is associated with substantial variations of the electronic structure with alloy composition. The phase diagram is constructed within the mean-field approximation.

The authors have used density functional theory calculations to investigate how the redox thermodynamics and kinetics of CeO2 are influenced by forming solid solutions with TiO2, ZrO2, HfO2, and ThO2. Reduction is facilitated by dissolving TiO2 (largest improvement), HfO2, or ZrO2 (least improvement), while ThO2 makes reduction slightly more difficult. The migration barrier is much lower in the neighborhood of a Ti (largest decrease), Hf, or Zr (least decrease), while the binding energy of solute ions and vacancies increases in the same sequence. They rationalize the properties of ceria solid solutions in terms of defect cluster relaxations.

We investigate the energy dependence of the exact muffin-tin-orbital slope matrix in the complex energy plane. Analytic expressions for the asymptotic behavior of the slope matrix and its first energy derivative for large imaginary energies are given. We demonstrate that a two-center Taylor type expansion of the slope matrix accurately reproduces the exact values within a complex energy range covering the usual energy window used in electronic structure calculations. As an application, we study the composition dependence of the lattice parameters of the MgY binary system, a candidate material for hydrogen storage applications.

In a series of experiments in externally electrically heated diamond anvil cells we demonstrate that at pressures above similar to 240 GPa gold adopts a hexagonal-close-packed structure. Ab initio calculations predict that at pressures about 250 GPa different stacking sequences of close-packed atomic layers in gold become virtually degenerate in energy, strongly supporting the experimental observations.

Times Cited: 0 10th International Conference on Electronic Spectroscopy and Structure Aug 28-sep 01, 2006 Foz do Iguacu, BRAZIL

The exact muffin-tin orbitals (EMTO) technique in conjunction with the coherent-potential approximation (CPA) as well as the projector-augmented-wave (PAW) method have been used to calculate the surface segregation energy of Cr at the (100) surface of Fe-rich bcc Fe-Cr alloys. We find that PAW results strongly depend on the supercell size used in the calculations. In particular, for large supercells, the surface segregation energy of Cr is positive, which means that Cr should not segregate toward the surface of diluted alloys. This is in agreement with our EMTO-CPA results as well as previous surface Green's-function calculations. However, the surface segregation energy of Cr is negative if small unit cells are used for simulations. This is in agreement with previous full-potential supercell calculations. We explain such a size dependence by a peculiar concentration dependence of interatomic interactions in ferromagnetic Fe-Cr alloys.

The results of a first-principles study supported by the temperature-quenched laser-heated diamond anvil-cell experiments on the high-pressure high-temperature structural behavior of pure iron are reported. We show that in contrast to the widely accepted picture, the face-centered cubic (fcc) phase becomes as stable as the hexagonal-close-packed (hcp) phase at pressures around 300-360 GPa and temperatures around 5000-6000 K. Our temperature-quenched experiments indicate that the fcc phase of iron can exist in the pressure-temperature region above 160 GPa and 3700 K, respectively. This, in particular, means that the actual structure of the Earth's core may be a complex phase with a large number of stacking faults.

Lattice dynamics of body-centered cubic (bcc) V-b-VIb group transition metals (TM), and B1-type monocarbides and mononitrides of IIIb-VIb transition metals are studied by means of first-principles density functional perturbation theory, ultra soft pseudopotentials, and generalized gradient approximation to the exchange-correlation functional. Ground state parameters of transition metals and their compounds are correctly reproduced with the generated ultrasoft pseudopotentials. The calculated phonon spectra of the bcc metals are in excellent agreement with results of inelastic neutron scattering experiments. We show that the superconductivity of transition metal carbides (TMC) and transition metal nitrides (TMN) is related to peculiarities of the phonon spectra, and the anomalies of the spectra are connected to the number of valence electrons in crystals. The calculated electron-phonon interaction constants for TM, TMC, and TMN are in excellent agreement with experimentally determined values. Phonon spectra for a number of monocarbides and mononitrides of transition metals within the cubic NaCl- and hexagonal WC-type structures are predicted. Ideal stoichiometric B1 crystals of ScC, YC, and VC are predicted to be dynamically stable and superconducting materials. We also conclude that YN is a semiconductor.

Electronic structure, thermodynamic, and magnetic properties of 3d-transition metal (TM) impurities in GaAs have been studied from first principles using Green's function approach. The studied TM impurities (V, Cr, Mn, and Fe) are found to form substitutional alloys on the Ga sublattice. The possibility of raising the Curie temperature TC in (GaMn) As by co-doping it with Cr impurities was examined on the basis of total energy difference between the disordered local moment (DLM) and the ferromagnetically ordered (FM) spin configurations. The calculated Curie temperature and magnetic moment have maxima for GaAs doped with Cr and Mn. The magnetic properties of Mn-doped GaAs are shown to be more sensitive to antisite As defects than those of Cr-doped GaAs. However, the Cr impurities are sensitive to the presence of acceptor defects, such as vacancies on the Ga sublattice. The investigation of the electronic structure of pseudo-ternary alloys (Ga(1-x-y)MnxCry) As has shown a mutual compensation of Mn and Cr impurities. Therefore, in order to reach the highest critical temperature, GaAs has to be separately doped with Cr or Mn impurities. The GaAs doped with Fe is found to be non-ferromagnetic., QC 20100624

We have performed ab initio calculations of the mixing enthalpy for the Mo-Ru alloy system. Both completely random alloys on the fcc, bcc, and hcp lattices as well as ordered and partially ordered structures based on the hcp lattice and a sigma phase have been examined. Further, we have performed a ground-state search for the Ru-rich region using ab initio derived effective interactions, and find a series of structures below the tie line of the simple compounds. Using the structures from this ground-state search, we are able to make an estimation of the contribution to the total energy due to ordering effects in this system. We find unusually large deviations between calculated and experimental values of the mixing enthalpy for Ru-rich hcp alloys. Our calculations indicate, in agreement with experiment, that there are ordering trends in the system. However, even under assumption of maximal order theoretical results differ substantially from the experiment. Possible reasons for the disagreement are discussed., QC 20100525

We report on the results of a systematic ab initio study of the magnetic structure of Fe rich fcc FeNi binary alloys for Ni concentrations up to 50 at. %. Calculations are carried out within density-functional theory using two complementary techniques, one based on the exact muffin-tin orbital theory within the coherent potential approximation and another one based on the projector augmented-wave method. We observe that the evolution of the magnetic structure of the alloy with increasing Ni concentration is determined by a competition between a large number of magnetic states, collinear as well as noncollinear, all close in energy. We emphasize a series of transitions between these magnetic structures, in particular we have investigated a competition between disordered local moment configurations, spin spiral states, the double layer antiferromagnetic state, and the ferromagnetic phase, as well as the ferrimagnetic phase with a single spin flipped with respect to all others. We show that the latter should be particularly important for the understanding of the magnetic structure of the Invar alloys., QC 20100525

We propose a nondestructive technique based on atomic core-level shifts to characterize the interface quality of thin film nanomaterials. Our method uses the inherent sensitivity of the atomic core-level binding energies to their local surroundings in order to probe the layer-resolved binary alloy composition profiles at deeply embedded interfaces. From an analysis based upon high energy x-ray photoemission spectroscopy and density functional theory of a Ni/Cu fcc (100) model system, we demonstrate that this technique is a sensitive tool to characterize the sharpness of a buried interface. We performed controlled interface tuning by gradually approaching the diffusion temperature of the multilayer, which lead to intermixing. We show that core-level spectroscopy directly reflects the changes in the electronic structure of the buried interfaces, which ultimately determines the functionality of the nanosized material.

The accuracy of the exact muffin-tin orbitals method combined with the coherent potential approximation (EMTO-CPA) for total energy calculations for systems with magnetic and chemical disorder, which is present simultaneously, is investigated. The mixing enthalpy of ordered, as well as disordered FeCo, FeNi, and FeCu equiatomic ferromagnetic alloys is calculated with the EMTO-CPA method and with the full-potential projector augmented wave (PAW) method. The results are compared and found to be in excellent agreement with each other. The EMTO-CPA method, in combination with disordered local moment model, is then applied to calculate the mixing enthalpy of the random paramagnetic face-centered cubic (fcc) FeCo alloy, as well as body-centered cubic (bcc) FeCr and FeV alloys over the whole concentration range. The results are compared with experimental data and a very good agreement is found again., QC 20100525 QC 20120123

The binary Fe-Cr alloy is a system with a miscibility gap. The decomposition occurs either via the nucleation and growth mechanism or as spinodal decomposition, depending on the Cr content. However, at low chromium concentrations the alloys are anomalously stable. This is shown to be true only for the ferromagnetic body centered cubic (bcc) phase. The stability stems from the negative mixing enthalpy at low concentrations of chromium. We show that the effect has an electronic origin, that is, it is directly related to variations of the electronic structure in the alloy with concentration. We also demonstrate that the variation in the state density of the majority channel at the Fermi level in the concentration interval below 20 at. % Cr indicates increasing tendency of the system towards the spinodal decomposition in the system. Moreover, in the equimolar concentration region, significant deviations of the spin up band from its canonical shape are observed, which destabilize the bcc phase., QC 20100525

We have used element-specific hysteresis measurements, based on the x-ray magnetic circular dichroism technique, to investigate magnetic trilayer structures composed of Fe and Ni layers. Within a critical regime we have discovered a class of structures in which the exchange interaction, the mechanism responsible for the macroscopic magnetism, can become vanishingly small. The experimental observations are supported by first principles theory and are explained as arising from a cancellation of several competing magnetic interactions. Hence, we have discovered a system with a novel exchange interaction between magnetic layers in direct contact that replaces the conventional exchange interaction in ferromagnets., QC 20120120

Iron and magnesium are almost immiscible at ambient pressure. The low solubility of Mg in Fe is due to a very large size mismatch between the alloy components. However, the compressibility of Mg is much higher than that of Fe, and therefore the difference in atomic sizes between elements decreases dramatically with pressure. Based on the predictions of ab initio calculations, we demonstrate in a series of experiments in a multianvil apparatus and in electrically and laser-heated diamond anvil cells that high pressure promotes solubility of magnesium in iron. At the megabar pressure range, more than 10 at. % of Mg can dissolve in Fe and then the alloy can be quenched to ambient conditions. A generality of the concept of high-pressure alloying between immiscible elements is demonstrated by its application to two other Fe group elements, Co and Ni., QC 20100525

QC 20100525

The exact muffin-tin-orbital (EMTO) method is generalized for fully relativistic (FR) spin-polarized calculations. In the present implementation we solve self-consistently the four-component Dirac equation by using the Green's function formalism. Substitutional disorder is treated within the coherent potential approximation. To obtain accurate total energies we use the full-charge density technique. We apply the FR-EMTO Green's function method to calculate the ground-state properties of delta-Pu. We also calculate spin and orbital magnetic moments in random bcc, fcc, and hcp Fe-Co alloys, as well as in the B2 ordered and partially ordered phase., QC 20100525

An implementation of the coherent potential approximation (CPA) is carried out within the frameworks of the exact muffin-tin orbitals (EMTO) theory. During the self-consistent iterations the Poisson equation is solved using the spherical cell approximation, and the charge transfer between alloy components is treated within the screened impurity model. The total energy is calculated using the full charge density (FCD) technique. The FCD-EMTO-CPA method is suitable for accurate determination of the electronic structure and total energy of completely random alloys with a substitutional disorder on any kind of underlying crystal lattice. The accuracy of the method is demonstrated through test calculations performed on face centered cubic (f cc), body centered cubic (bcc), and hexagonal close packed (hcp) Cu-Zn binary alloys., QC 20111013

The formation energies of intrinsic point defects and solution energies of transition metal impurities in gallium arsenide are determined on the basis of ab initio calculations using the method of a locally self-consistent Green's function, which is a generalization of the coherent potential approximation. Based on the calculated energies, the conclusion is made that the As-Ga antisite defect is the most common intrinsic defect in GaAs. Calculations showed that transition metal impurities, except for Ni, preferentially occupy gallium sites substitutionally. The magnetic moments of impurity atoms are calculated as a function of the chemical environment. It is shown that, in compensated GaAs, Mn atoms tend to form clusters., QC 20100624

Pair exchange parameters J(ij) of the classical Heisenberg Hamiltonian for magnetic interactions in the archetypical Invar system, face centered cubic (fcc) Fe-Ni alloys, are calculated from the first principles. The magnetic structure of Fe-Ni alloys in the region of volumes and electron concentrations related to the Invar effect is highly frustrated. However, the origin of such a frustration in concentrated alloys and in the pure fcc Fe are different. While in Fe it is due to the long-range oscillating J(ij), in alloys with high Ni concentration it is mainly the consequence of a huge dispersion of the nearest-neighbor exchange parameters, caused by the local environment effects., QC 20100525

The segregation energies of 3d (Sc-Cu), 4d (Y-Ag) and 5d (La-Au) transition metal impurities on the (10 0) surface of TiC have been obtained using first-principles electronic structure calculations. The results are in agreement with available experimental data and show that the difference in atomic size between the impurity and host species, as well as the difference in surface energies determines if the impurity will segregate towards the surface or not. The results indicate that the difference in size is the dominant factor for the trends in segregation of transition metal impurities towards the (100) surface of TiC., QC 20100525

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The Augerkinetic energyand Augerparameter shiftsin fccAgPdrandomalloyswere calculated by extending the completescreeningpicture. The augerkinetic energyshiftfor the L3M4,5M4,5 Auger transition was calculated ab initio and compared with first-principles calculations. The shifts were analyzed as a function of alloy compositions. The Auger kinetic energy shifts were also analyzed in terms of single-hole states for the 2p3/2 core level and double-hole states for the 3d 5/2 core level., QC 20100525, QC 20111014