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Hydrogenation reactions at gigapascal pressures can yield hydrogen-rich materials with properties relating to superconductivity, ion conductivity, and hydrogen storage. Here, we investigated the ternary Na-Si-H system by computational structure prediction and in situ synchrotron diffraction studies of reaction mixtures NaH-Si-H-2 at 5-10 GPa. Structure prediction indicated the existence of various hypervalent hydridosilicate phases with compositions NamSiH(4+m) (m = 1-3) at comparatively low pressures, 0-20 GPa. These ternary Na-Si-H phases share, as a common structural feature, octahedral SiH62- complexes which are condensed into chains for m = 1 and occur as isolated species for m = 2, 3. In situ studies demonstrated the formation of the double salt Na-3[SiH6]H (Na3SiH7, m = 3) containing both octahedral SiH62- moieties and hydridic H-. Upon formation at elevated temperatures (>500 degrees C), Na3SiH7 attains a tetragonal structure (P4/mbm, Z = 2) which, during cooling, transforms to an orthorhombic polymorph (Pbam, Z = 4). Upon decompression, Pbam-Na3SiH7 was retained to approx. 4.5 GPa, below which a further transition into a yet unknown polymorph occurred. Na3SiH7 is a new representative of yet elusive hydridosilicate compounds. Its double salt nature and polymorphism are strongly reminiscent of fluorosilicates and germanates.

K2SiH6, crystallizing in the cubicK(2)PtCl(6) structure type (Fm3 ̅m), features unusual hypervalent SiH6 (2-) complexes. Here, the formation of K2SiH6 athigh pressures is revisited by in situ synchrotron diffraction experiments,considering KSiH3 as a precursor. At the investigated pressures,8 and 13 GPa, K2SiH6 adopts the trigonal (NH4)(2)SiF6 structure type (P3 ̅m1) upon formation. The trigonal polymorphis stable up to 725 & DEG;C at 13 GPa. At room temperature, the transitioninto an ambient pressure recoverable cubic form occurs below 6.7 GPa.Theory suggests the existence of an additional, hexagonal, variantin the pressure interval 3-5 GPa. According to density functionaltheory band structure calculations, K2SiH6 isa semiconductor with a band gap around 2 eV. Nonbonding H-dominatedstates are situated below and Si-H anti-bonding states arelocated above the Fermi level. Enthalpically feasible and dynamicallystable metallic variants of K2SiH6 may be obtainedwhen substituting Si partially by Al or P, thus inducing p- and n-typemetallicity, respectively. Yet, electron-phonon coupling appearsweak, and calculated superconducting transition temperatures are <1K. The formation of K2SiH6 at high pressuresstarting from KSiH3 or mixtures of KH and KSiH3 is investigated by in situ synchrotron diffraction experiments.Between 6.5 and 13 GPa, K2SiH6 adopts the trigonal(NH4)(2)SiF6 structure type (P3 ̅m1), which is stable up to 725 & DEG;C at 13 GPa. At room temperature, the transition into an ambientpressure-recoverable cubic form occurs below 6.5 GPa., Funding Agencies|Swedish Research Council (VR) [2019-06063]; Bundesministerium fuer Bildung und Forschung (BMBF)-German Federal Ministry of Education and Research [05K20OLA]; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [277832266]; BMBF [05K16WC2, 05K13WC2]; Swedish Government Strategic Research Area in Materials Science on Functional Materials at Linkoping University (Faculty Grant SFO-Mat-LiU) [854843]; Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation; ERC (synergy grant FASTCORR project) [2019-05551]; [2009-00971]; [2022-06725]; [2018-05973]; Swedish Research Council [2019-06063] Funding Source: Swedish Research Council

The solid Earth's inner core (IC) is a sphere with a radius of about 1300 km in the center of the Earth. The information about the IC comes mainly from seismic studies. The composition of the IC is obtained by matching the seismic data and properties of candidate phases subjected to high pressure (P) and temperature (T). The close match between the density of the IC and iron suggests that the main constituent of the IC is iron. However, the stable phase of iron is still a subject of debate. One such iron phase, the body-centered cubic phase (bcc), is dynamically unstable at pressures of the IC (330–364 GPa) and low T but gets stabilized at high T characteristic of the IC (5000–7000 K). So far, ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) studies attempted to compute the bcc elastic properties for a small (order of 102) number of atoms. The mechanism of the bcc stabilization cannot be enabled in such cells and that has led to erroneous results. Here we apply AIMD to compute elastic moduli and sound velocities of the Fe bcc phase for a 2000 Fe atom computational cell, which is a cell of unprecedented size for ab initio calculations of iron. Unlike in previous ab initio calculations, both the longitudinal and the shear sound velocities of the Fe bcc phase closely match the properties of the IC material at P = 360 GPa and T = 6600 K, likely the PT conditions in the IC. The calculated density of the bcc iron at these PT conditions is just 3% higher than the density of the IC material according to the Preliminary Earth Model. This suggests that the widely assumed amount of light elements in the IC may need a reconsideration. The anisotropy of the bcc phase is an exact match to the most recent seismic studies.

Investigations of reaction mixtures REx(Au0.79Si0.21)100–x (RE = Y and Gd) yielded the compounds REAu3Si which adopt a new structure type, referred to as GdAu3Si structure (tP80, P42/mnm, Z = 16, a = 12.8244(6)/12.7702(2) Å, and c = 9.0883(8)/9.0456(2) Å for GdAu3Si/YAu3Si, respectively). REAu3Si was afforded as millimeter-sized faceted crystal specimens from solution growth employing melts with composition RE18(Au0.79Si0.21)82. In the GdAu3Si structure, the Au and Si atoms are strictly ordered and form a framework built of corner-connected, Si-centered, trigonal prismatic units SiAu6. RE atoms distribute on 3 crystallographically different sites and each attain a 16-atom coordination by 12 Au and 4 Si atoms. These 16-atom polyhedra commonly fill the space of the unit cell. The physical properties of REAu3Si were investigated by heat capacity, electrical resistivity, and magnetometry techniques and are discussed in the light of theoretical predictions. YAu3Si exhibits superconductivity around 1 K, whereas GdAu3Si shows a complex magnetic ordering, likely related to frustrated antiferromagnets exhibiting chiral spin textures. GdAu3Si-type phases with interesting magnetic and transport properties may exist in an extended range of ternary RE–Au–Si systems, similar to the compositionally adjacent cubic 1/1 approximants RE(Au,Si)∼6.

The antiferromagnetic transition metal oxyhydride SrVO2H is distinguished by its stoichiometric composition and an ordered arrangement of H atoms. The tetragonal structure is related to the cubic perovskite and consists of alternating layers of VO2 and SrH. d2 V(III) attains a sixfold coordination by four O and two H atoms. The latter are arranged in a trans fashion, which produces H–V–H chains along the tetragonal axis. Here, we investigate the vibrational properties of SrVO2H by inelastic neutron scattering and infrared spectroscopy combined with phonon calculations based on density functional theory. The H-based vibrational modes divide into a degenerate bending motion perpendicular to the H–V–H chain direction and a highly dispersed stretching motion along the H–V–H chain direction. The bending motion, with a vibrational frequency of approximately 800 cm−1, is split into two components separated by about 50 cm−1, owing to the doubled unit cell from the antiferromagnetic structure. Interestingly, spin-phonon coupling stiffens the H-based modes by 50−100cm−1 although super-exchange coupling via H is very small. Frequency shifts of the same order of magnitude also occur for V–O modes. It is inferred that SrVO2H displays the hitherto largest recognized coupling between magnetism and phonons in a material.

The Ce2Fe17 intermetallic compound has been studied intensely for several decades; its low-temperature state is reported experimentally either as ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic by different authors, with a measured ordering temperature ranging within a hundred Kelvin. The existing theoretical investigations overestimate the experimental total magnetic moment of Ce2Fe17 by 20-40% and predict a ferromagnetic ground state. By means of first-principle electronic structure calculations, we show that the total magnetic moment of Ce2Fe17 can be reproduced within the Local Density Approximation while functionals based on the Generalized Gradient Approximation fail. Atomistic spin dynamics simulations are shown to capture the change in the magnetic state of Ce2Fe17 with temperature, and closely replicate the reported helical structure that appears in some of the experimental investigations.

We present an application of a high-throughput search of new rare-earth free permanent magnets focusing on 3d-5d transition metal compounds. The search involved a part of the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database, together with tailored search criteria and electronic structure calculations of magnetic properties. Our results suggest that it is possible to find candidates for rare-earth free permanent magnets using a data-mining/datafiltering approach. The most promising candidates identified here are Pt2FeNi, Pt2FeCu, and W2FeB2. We suggest these materials to be a good platform for further investigations in the search of novel rare-earth free permanent magnets.

The electronic structure of cerium oxide is investigated here using a combination of ab initio one-electron theory and elements from many-body physics, with emphasis on the nature of the 4f electron shell of cerium ions. We propose to use the hybridization function as a convenient measure for the degree of localization of the 4f shell of this material, and observe that changing the oxidation state is related to distinct changes in the hybridization between the 4f shell and ligand states. The theory reveals that CeO2 has essentially itinerant 4f states, and that in the least oxidized form of ceria, Ce2O3, the 4f states are almost (but not fully) localized. This conclusion is supported by additional calculations based on a combination of density functional theory and dynamical mean field theory. Most importantly, our model points to the fact that diffusion of oxygen vacancies in cerium oxide may be seen as polaron hopping, involving a correlated 4f electron cloud, which is located primarily on Ce ions of several atomic shells surrounding the vacancy.

In this work, we present experimental and theoretical results on SmFe12-xVx (x = 0.5 - 2.0) alloys with the ThMn12 (1:12) structure as possible candidates for rare earth-lean permanent magnets. The compound with x = 2 has been previously reported to have a Curie temperature of 330 degrees C, saturation magnetization of about 80 Am-2/kg, and anisotropy field around 9 T. We have synthesized the SmFe11V compound with a nearly pure 1:12 phase; the x = 0.5 compound couldn't be synthesized. The relative stability of the x = 1, 2 compounds was addressed theoretically by enthalpy calculations from first principles. The newly synthesized SmFe11V compound has a Curie temperature of 361 degrees C and saturation magnetization of 115 Am-2/kg (1.12 T). The anisotropy field has been obtained in magnetically-oriented fine powders, and is around 11 T. These parameters make SmFe11V a good candidate for a new kind of high energy, rare earth-lean permanent magnets.

This paper describes the open Novamag database that has been developed for the design of novel Rare-Earth free/lean permanent magnets. Its main features as software technologies, friendly graphical user interface, advanced search mode, plotting tool and available data are explained in detail. Following the philosophy and standards of Materials Genome Initiative, it contains significant results of novel magnetic phases with high magnetocrystalline anisotropy obtained by three computational high-throughput screening approaches based on a crystal structure prediction method using an Adaptive Genetic Algorithm, tetragonally distortion of cubic phases and tuning known phases by doping. Additionally, it also includes theoretical and experimental data about fundamental magnetic material properties such as magnetic moments, magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy, exchange parameters, Curie temperature, domain wall width, exchange stiffness, coercivity and maximum energy product, that can be used in the study and design of new promising high-performance Rare-Earth free/lean permanent magnets. The results therein contained might provide some insights into the ongoing debate about the theoretical performance limits beyond Rare-Earth based magnets. Finally, some general strategies are discussed to design possible experimental routes for exploring most promising theoretical novel materials found in the database.

The electronic structure, magnetic properties, and phase formation of hexagonal ferromagnetic Fe3Sn-based alloys have been studied from first principles and by experiment. The pristine Fe3Sn compound is known to fulfill all the requirements for a good permanent magnet, except for the magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy (MAE). The latter is large, but planar, i.e., the easy magnetization axis is not along the hexagonal c direction, whereas a good permanent magnet requires the MAE to be uniaxial. Here we consider Fe3Sn0.75M0.25, where M = Si, P, Ga, Ge, As, Se, In, Sb, Te, Pb, and Bi, and show how different dopants affect the MAE and can alter it from planar to uniaxial. The stability of the doped Fe3Sn phases is elucidated theoretically via the calculations of their formation enthalpies. A micromagnetic model is developed to estimate the energy density product (BH)(max) and coercive field mu H-0(c) of a potential magnet made of Fe3Sn0.75M0.25, the most promising candidate from theoretical studies. The phase stability and magnetic properties of the Fe3Sn compound doped with Sb and Mn have been checked experimentally on the samples synthesised using the reactive crucible melting technique as well as by solid state reaction. The Fe3Sn-Sb compound is found to be stable when alloyed with Mn. It is shown that even small structural changes, such as a change of the c/a ratio or volume, that can be induced by, e.g., alloying with Mn, can influence anisotropy and reverse it from planar to uniaxial and back.

High-performance permanent magnets (PM) are compounds with outstanding intrinsic magnetic properties. Most PMs are obtained from a favorable combination of rare earth metals (RE = Nd, Pr, Ce) with transition metals (TM = Fe, Co). Amongst them, CeFe11Ti claims considerable attention due to its large Curie temperature, saturation magnetization, and significant magnetocrystalline anisotropic energy. CeFe11Ti has several potential applications, in particular, in the development of electric motors for future automatic electrification. In this work, we shed some light on the mictrostructure of this compound by performing periodic hybrid-exchange density functional theory (DFT) calculations. We use a combined approach of atom-centered local orbitals, plane waves and full-potential linear muffin-tin orbital (LMTO) for our computations. The electronic configuration of the atoms involved in different steps of formation of the crystal structure of CeFe11Ti gives an explanation on the effect of Ce and Ti on its magnetic properties. While Ti stabilizes the structure, atomic orbitals of Ce hybridizes with Fe atomic orbitals to a significant extent and alters the electronic bands. Our calculations confirm a valence of 3(+) for Ce, which has been deemed crucial to obtain a large magnetocrystalline anisotropy. In addition, we analyze several spin configurations, with the ferromagnetic configuration being most stable. We compare and contrast our data to those available and provide an insight for further development of optimized high-performance PMs. Moreover, we compute the Magnetocrystalline Anisotropy of this compound by means of two approaches: the Force Theorem and a full-potential LMTO method.

We examine the effects of the dopant type and the dopant distribution on the ion diffusion in ceria doped with rare-earth elements (Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm, Eu, and Gd). Diffusion is simulated by means of a Kinetic Monte Carlo method using input transition rates derived from diffusion barriers calculated in the framework of density functional theory (DFT). Based on diffusion simulations, we discuss the characteristics of the dopants in terms of the diffusion barriers, and study oxygen ion trajectories for different dopants and distributions. Our simulations show a trend of increasing ion diffusivity with increasing atomic number for all distributions.

Simulations of diffusion in solids often produce poor statistics of diffusion events. We present an analytical expression for the statistical error in ion conductivity obtained in such simulations. The error expression is not restricted to any computational method in particular, but valid in the context of simulation of Poisson processes in general. This analytical error expression is verified numerically for the case of Gd-doped ceria by running a large number of kinetic Monte Carlo calculations., QC 20160913

A first-principles nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) study employing the color-diffusion algorithm has been conducted to obtain the bulk ionic conductivity and the diffusion constant of gadolinium-doped cerium oxide (GDC) in the 850-1150 K temperature range. Being a slow process, ionic diffusion in solids usually requires simulation times that are prohibitively long for ab initio equilibrium molecular dynamics. The use of the color-diffusion algorithm allowed us to substantially speed up the oxygen-ion diffusion. The key parameters of the method, such as field direction and strength as well as color-charge distribution, have been investigated and their optimized values for the considered system have been determined. The calculated ionic conductivity and diffusion constants are in good agreement with available experimental data., QC 20160205

We have studied the body-centered cubic (bcc), face-centered cubic (fcc), and hexagonal close-packed (hcp) phases of Fe alloyed with 25 at.% of Ni at Earth's core conditions using an ab initio local density approximation + dynamical mean-field theory approach. The alloys have been modeled by ordered crystal structures based on the bcc, fcc, and hcp unit cells with the minimum possible cell size allowing for the proper composition. Our calculations demonstrate that the strength of electronic correlations on the Fe 3d shell is highly sensitive to the phase and local environment. In the bcc phase, the 3d electrons at the Fe site with Fe only nearest neighbors remain rather strongly correlated, even at extreme pressure-temperature conditions, with the local and uniform magnetic susceptibility exhibiting a Curie-Weiss-like temperature evolution and the quasiparticle lifetime Gamma featuring a non-Fermi-liquid temperature dependence. In contrast, for the corresponding Fe site in the hcp phase, we predict a weakly correlated Fermi-liquid state with a temperature-independent local susceptibility and a quadratic temperature dependence of Gamma. The iron sites with nickel atoms in the local environment exhibit behavior in the range between those two extreme cases, with the strength of correlations gradually increasing along the hcp-fcc-bcc sequence. Further, the intersite magnetic interactions in the bcc and hcp phases are also strongly affected by the presence of Ni nearest neighbors. The sensitivity to the local environment is related to modifications of the Fe partial density of states due to mixing with Ni 3d states., QC 20150626