The conundrum of relaxation volumes in first-principles calculations of charge defects
Anuj Goyal, Kiran Mathew, Richard G. Hennig, Aleksandr Chernatynskiy, Christopher R. Stank, Samuel T. Murphy, David A. Andersson, Simon R. Phillpot, Blas P. Uberuaga
The defect relaxation volumes obtained from density-functional theory (DFT) calculations of charged vacancies and interstitials are much larger than their neutral counterparts, seemingly unphysically large. In this work, we investigate the possible reasons for this and revisit the methods that address the calculation of charged defect structures in periodic DFT. We probe the dependence of the proposed energy corrections to charged defect formation energies on relaxation volumes and find that corrections such as the image charge correction and the alignment correction, which can lead to sizable changes in defect formation energies, have an almost negligible effect on the charged defect relaxation volume. We also investigate the volume for the net neutral defect reactions comprised of individual charged defects, and find that the aggregate formation volumes have reasonable magnitudes. This work highlights an important issue that, as for defect formation energies, the defect formation volumes depend on the choice of reservoir. We show that considering the change in volume of the electron reservoir in the formation reaction of the charged defects, analogous to how volumes of atoms are accounted for in defect formation volumes, can renormalize the formation volumes of charged defects such that they are comparable to neutral defects. This approach enables the description of the elastic properties of isolated charged defects within the overall neutral material, beyond the context of the overall defect reactions that produce the charged defect.
The low energy structures of irradiation-induced defects have been studied in detail, as these determine the available modes by which a defect can diffuse or relax. As a result, there are many studies concerning the relative energies of possible defect structures, and empirical potentials are commonly fitted to or evaluated with respect to these energies. But recently [Dudarev et al Nuclear Fusion 2018], we have shown how to determine the stresses, strains and swelling of reactor components under irradiation from the elastic properties of ensembles of irradiation-induced defects. These elastic…
We propose a new analysis approach for scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) based on the Voronoi-cell integration method to determine the three-dimensional position of the InZn and VZn defect complex in ZnO. Using state of the art simulation software and hardware, we propose using a method of calculating Michelson Contrast on simulated images to determine the optimal acceptance angles to use in an experimental setting. The effect of defect position, DFT-relaxation and cooling the sample to liquid nitrogen temperatures is investigated. DFT-relaxation is shown to be of consequence to…
The mechanical stability of commercial GaP/Si templates during thermal an-nealing and subsequent MOCVD growth of GaP and AlGaP is investigated.Although the GaP layer of the template originally presents an excellent surfacemorphology, annealing at high enough temperatures to remove the native oxideprior to growth leads to plastic relaxation, accompanied by a variety of defects,including a dense grid of micro-twins. These micro-twins detrimentally affectGaP and AlGaP layers grown subsequently on the template.
Point defects in body-centred cubic Fe, Cr and concentrated random magnetic Fe-Cr are investigated using density functional theory and theory of elasticity. The volume of a substitutional Cr atom in ferromagnetic bcc Fe is approximately 18\% larger than the volume of a host Fe atom, whereas the volume of a substitutional Fe atom in antiferromagnetic bcc Cr is 5\% smaller than the volume of a host Cr atom. Elastic dipole $\boldsymbol{P}$ and relaxation volume $\boldsymbolΩ$ tensors of vacancies and self-interstitial atom (SIA) defects exhibit large fluctuations, with vacancies having negative a…
Defect induced polarization and dielectic relaxation in Ga$_2$$_-$$_x$Fe$_x$O$_3$
本文报道了Ga $_2$ $_-$ $_x$ Fe $_x$ O $_3$（x = 0.75，1.0和1.25）固溶体的介电和热释电测量结果。这些系统除了表现出自旋玻璃行为外，还表现出偶极团簇玻璃行为，这使得它们属于一类少数表现出多玻璃行为的系统。介电数据中存在两个贡献弛豫，这可能是由于极性纳米团簇的翻转和呼吸。此外，在这些系统中出现的极化可以理解的热刺激去极化电流（TSDC）的影响可能与带电的氧空位，而不是本征铁电行为的缺陷偶极子引起的。
Charged domain walls form spontaneously in Cu-Cl boracite on cooling through the phase transition. These walls exhibit changed conductivity compared to the bulk and motion consistent with the existence of negative capacitance. Here, we present the dielectric permittivity and DC resistivity of bulk Cu-Cl boracite as a function of temperature (-140 °C to 150 °C) and frequency (1 mHz to 10 MHz). The thermal behaviour of the two observed dielectric relaxations and the DC resistivity is discussed. We propose that the relaxations can be explained by the existence of point defects, most likely local …
动态蒙特卡罗（KMC）模拟研究非平衡系统的慢松弛。点缺陷引起的25千电子伏级联$α$ -Fe显示，导致一个特征的时间演变，所描述的\emph{replenish and relax}机制。然后，我们产生了一个原子为基础的评估模型，提出了解释缓慢的结构弛豫集中在10晶格参数$α$ -Fe盒，两个过程密切相关的级联退火，并表现出类似的时间签名的50个空位和25个自组装原子（SIA）的聚集。四个原子效应解释了演化中所涉及的时间尺度：缺陷浓度不均匀性，浓度增强的迁移率，团簇大小相关的键能和缺陷引起的压力。这些研究结果表明，两个主要类别的模型来解释缓慢的结构松弛，Eyring模型和吉布斯模型，都发挥了作用，以限制这些简单的点缺陷系统的松弛速率。
Lattice vibrations of point defects are essential for understanding non-radiative electron and hole capture in semiconductors as they govern properties including persistent photoconductivity and Shockley-Read-Hall recombination rate. Although the harmonic approximation is sufficient to describe a defect with small lattice relaxation, for cases of large lattice relaxation it is likely to break down. We describe a first-principles procedure to account for anharmonic carrier capture and apply it to the important case of the \textit{DX} center in GaAs. This is a system where the harmonic approxima…
Computing electron-defect (e-d) interactions from first principles has remained impractical due to computational cost. Here we develop an interpolation scheme based on maximally localized Wannier functions (WFs) to efficiently compute e-d interaction matrix elements. The interpolated matrix elements can accurately reproduce those computed directly without interpolation, and the approach can significantly speed up calculations of e-d relaxation times and defect-limited charge transport. We show example calculations of vacancy defects in silicon and copper, for which we compute the e-d relaxatio…
We present a methodology to calculate radiative carrier capture coefficients at deep defects in semiconductors and insulators from first principles. Electronic structure and lattice relaxations are accurately described with hybrid density functional theory. Calculations of capture coefficients provide an additional validation of the accuracy of these functionals in dealing with localized defect states. We also discuss the validity of the Condon approximation, showing that even in the event of large lattice relaxations the approximation is accurate. We test the method on GaAs:$V_\text{Ga}$-$\te…
A defect in diamond with millisecond-scale spin relaxation time at room temperature
Princeton University（普林斯顿大学）；University of California, Santa Barbara（加州大学圣塔芭芭拉分校）；US Naval Research Laboratory（美国海军研究实验室）；University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill（北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校）；University of Iowa（爱荷华大学）
A perfectly compliant substrate would allow the monolithic integration of high-quality semiconductor materials such as Ge and III-V on Silicon (Si) substrate, enabling novel functionalities on the well-established low-cost Si technology platform. Here, we demonstrate a compliant Si substrate allowing defect-free epitaxial growth of lattice mismatched materials. The method is based on the deep patterning of the Si substrate to form micrometer-scale pillars and subsequent electrochemical porosification. The investigation of the epitaxial Ge crystalline quality by X-ray diffraction, transmission …
Analytical Forces from the Bethe-Salpeter Equation for Large-Scale Excited-State Relaxation
Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago（芝加哥大学普里茨克分子工程学院）；Initiative for Computational Catalysis, Flatiron Institute（平顿研究所计算催化倡议）；Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory（阿贡国家实验室材料科学部）；Department of Physics, Computer Science, and Mathematics, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia（摩德纳和雷焦艾米利亚大学物理、计算机和数学系）；Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago（芝加哥大学化学系）
Due to its wide band gap and high carrier mobility, ZnO is an attractive material for light-harvesting and optoelectronic applications. Its functional efficiency, however, is strongly affected by defect-related in-gap states that open up extrinsic decay channels and modify relaxation timescales. As a consequence, almost every ZnO sample behaves differently, leading to irreproducible or even contradicting observations. Here, a complementary set of time-resolved spectroscopies is applied to two ZnO samples of different defect density to disentangle the competing contributions of charge carriers,…
铋硫属化物Bi $_2$ Se $_3$和Bi $_2$ Te $_3$是半导体，其可以是热电材料（TE）和拓扑绝缘体（TI）。由这些材料中的空位、杂质或掺杂剂引起的晶格缺陷是重要的，因为它们在TE应用中提供了载流子并损害了这些材料作为TI的性能。我们提出了第一个固态核磁共振（NMR）研究的$^{77}$硒和$^{125}$碲核磁共振共振在多晶粉末的铋$_2$硒$_3$和铋$_2$碲$_3$，分别。自旋-晶格（$T_1$）弛豫由至多两个指数来建模。在这个模型的框架内，NMR测量是敏感的，这些材料内的原生缺陷的分布。一种成分对应于化学计量分数，绝缘体具有非常长的$T_1$，而另一种成分归因于具有高缺陷含量的样品分数，其具有由与传导载流子的相互作用产生的短$T_1$。碲化铋中不存在非常长的$T_1$表明整个样品中存在缺陷。对于硒化铋，缺陷区域分离成域。我们还发现一个实质性的差异，在短$T_1$组件$^{125}$ Te核（76毫秒）和$^{77}$硒（0.63秒），尽管这些材料具有几乎相同的晶格结构，化学和物理性质。的NMR位移和Korringa定律的调查表明，在硫属化物网站的导带电子的耦合是更强的碲化物。结果与碲化物中$p$带电子的较强自旋轨道耦合（SOC）一致。如果给定材料的大多数参数保持相等，这种类型的实验可以提供工程TI材料中SOC的有用探针。
Paramagnetic defects in diamond and hexagonal boron nitride possess a unique combination of spin and optical properties that make them prototypical solid-state qubits. Despite the coherence of these spin qubits being critically limited by spin-phonon relaxation, a full understanding of this process is not yet available. Here we apply ab initio spin dynamics simulations to this problem and quantitatively reproduce the experimental temperature dependence of spin relaxation time and spin coherence time. We demonstrate that low-frequency two-phonon modulations of the zero-field splitting are respo…
The formation of topological spin textures at the nanoscale has a significant impact on the long-range order and dynamical response of magnetic materials. We study the relaxation mechanisms at the conical-to-helical phase transition in the chiral magnet FeGe. By combining ac susceptibility, magnetic force microscopy measurements and micromagnetic simulations, we demonstrate how the motion of magnetic topological defects, here edge dislocations, impacts the local formation of a stable helimagnetic spin structure. Although the simulations show that the edge dislocations move with a velocity of a…
We report $^{93}$Nb and $^{121}$Sb NMR and $^{57}$Fe Mössbauer studies combined with DFT calculations of Nb$_{1-x}$Ti$_x$FeSb ($0\leqslant x \leqslant0.3$), one of the most promising thermoelectric systems for applications above 1000 K. These studies provide local information about defects and electronic configurations in these heavily $p$-type materials. The NMR spin-lattice relaxation rate provides a measure of states within the valence band. With increasing $x$, changes of relaxation rate vs carrier concentration for different substitution fractions indicate the importance of resonant level…
Electron-defect ($e$-d) interactions govern charge carrier dynamics at low temperature, where they limit the carrier mobility and give rise to phenomena of broad relevance in condensed matter physics. Ab initio calculations of $e$-d interactions are still in their infancy, mainly because they require large supercells and computationally expensive workflows. Here we develop an efficient ab initio approach for computing elastic $e$-d interactions, their associated $e$-d relaxation times (RTs), and the low-temperature defect-limited carrier mobility. The method is applied to silicon with simple n…
Hydrogen induced nonmonotonic relaxation in binary mixtures similar to Pd-Er alloys as a transition process in nonequilibrium heterogeneous systems with spinodal decomposition
