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QUANTUM-MECHANICAL STUDY OF INTERNAL STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS IN Pb-SUPERSATURATED Pb-Sn ALLOYS
Friák, Martin ; Čípek, Petr ; Pavlů, J. ; Roupcová, Pavla ; Miháliková, Ivana ; Msallamová, Š. ; Michalcová, A.
Motivated by a decades-long controversy related to the crystal structure of Pb-supersaturated solid solutions of Pb in Sn, we have performed a quantum-mechanical study of these materials. Focusing on both body-centred-tetragonal beta-Sn and simple-hexagonal gamma-Sn structures, we have computed properties of two alloys with the chemical composition Pb5Sn11, i.e. 31.25 at. % Pb, which is close to the composition of the experimentally found alloy (30 at. % Pb). The 16-atom computational supercells were designed as multiples of the elemental beta- and gamma-Sn unit cells, where the Pb atoms were distributed according to the special quasi-random structure (SQS) concept. Full structural relaxations of both beta- and gamma-phase-based alloys resulted in very significant re-arrangements into structures which do not exhibit any apparent structural features typical for the original alloys, and are, therefore, difficult to classify. The formation energies of the beta- and gamma-phase-originating equilibrium phases are 50 meV/atom and 53 meV/atom, respectively. Therefore, they are not stable with respect to the decomposition into the elemental lead and tin. Moreover, our calculations of elastic constants of both phases revealed that they are close to mechanical instability. Our results indicate that the studied Pb-supersaturated Pb-Sn solid solutions may be prone to structural instability, transformations into different phases and decomposition. Our findings may contribute into the identification of the reason why the subsequent experimental studies did not reproduce the initial published data.
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QUANTUM-COMPUTING STUDY OF THE ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE OF CRYSTALS: THE CASE STUDY OF SI
Ďuriška, Michal ; Miháliková, Ivana ; Friák, Martin
Quantum computing is newly emerging information-processing technology which is foreseen to be exponentially faster than classical supercomputers. Current quantum processors are nevertheless very limited in their availability and performance and many important software tools for them do not exist yet. Therefore, various systems are studied by simulating the run of quantum computers. Building upon our previous experience with quantum computing of small molecular systems (see I. Mihalikova et al., Molecules 27 (2022) 597, and I. Mihalikova et al., Nanomaterials 2022, 12, 243), we have recently focused on computing electronic structure of periodic crystalline materials. Being inspired by the work of Cerasoli et al. (Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2020, 22, 21816), we have used hybrid variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) algorithm, which combined classical and quantum information processing. Employing tight-binding type of crystal description, we present our results for crystalline diamond-structure silicon. In particular, we focus on the states along the lowest occupied band within the electronic structure of Si and compare the results with values obtained by classical means. While we demonstrate an excellence agreement between classical and quantum-computed results in most of our calculations, we further critically check the sensitivity of our results with respect to computational set-up in our quantum-computing study. A few results were obtained also using quantum processors provided by the IBM.
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Quantum-mechanical study of magnetic properties of superalloy nanocomposite phase Fe2AlTi
Slávik, Anton ; Miháliková, Ivana ; Friák, Martin ; Všianská, Monika ; Šob, Mojmír
The L21-structure Fe2AlTi intermetallic compound is one of the two phases identified in Fe-Al-Ti superalloy nanocomposites. Experimental data related to low-temperature magnetic properties of this Heusler compound indicate that magnetic moment is about 0.1 Bohr magneton per formula unit. In contrast, previous quantum-mechanical calculations predicted Fe2AlTi to have much higher magnetic moment, 0.9 Bohr magneton per formula unit. In order to solve this discrepancy between the theory and experiment we have performed a series of quantum-mechanical fix-spin-moment calculations and compared our results with those for non-magnetic state. It turns out that the total energy of the non-magnetic state is only by 10.73 meV/atom higher than that of the magnetic state. When applying Boltzmann statistics to this very small energy difference we predict that the non-magnetic state appears at non-zero temperatures with significant probabilities (for instance, 22.36 % at T = 100 K) and reduces the overall magnetic moment. As another mechanism lowering the magnetization we studied selected shape deformations, in particular trigonal shearing. Fe2AlTi exhibits a compression-tension asymmetry with respect to these strains and, for example, the strain 0.08 destabilizes the spin-polarized state, leaving the non-magnetic state as the only stable one.
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First-principles study of interface energies in Fe-Al-based superalloy nanocomposites
Miháliková, Ivana ; Slávik, Anton ; Friák, Martin ; Všianská, Monika ; Koutná, N. ; Holec, David ; Šob, Mojmír
Fe-Al-based nanocomposites with a superalloy-type of microstructure constitute a very promising class of materials. They possess a great potential as an alternative to the currently used steel grades in high temperature applications. Intermetallics-containing nanocomposites, such as those with the Fe3Al compound being one of the phases, may open a way towards future automotive and energy-conversion technologies with lower fuel consumption and reduced environmental impact. We employ quantum-mechanical calculations to analyze relations between ordering tendencies of Al atoms in the disordered Fe-18.75at.%Al phase on one hand and thermodynamic, structural and magnetic properties of Fe-Al-based nanocomposites on the other. When comparing supercells modeling disordered Fe-Al phase with different atomic distribution of atoms we find out that the supercell without 1st and 2nd nearest neighbor Al-Al pairs has a lower energy than that mimicking a perfect disorder (a special quasi-random structure, SQS). Further, coherent interfaces with (001), (110) and (1-10) crystallographic orientations between Fe3Al compound and SQS Fe-Al phase have higher energies than those exhibiting atomic distribution without 1st and 2nd nearest neighbor Al-Al pairs.
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Theory-guided design of novel Fe-Al-based superalloys
Friák, Martin ; Holec, D. ; Jirásková, Yvonna ; Palm, M. ; Stein, F. ; Janičkovič, D. ; Pizúrová, Naděžda ; Dymáček, Petr ; Dobeš, Ferdinand ; Šesták, Pavel ; Fikar, Jan ; Šremr, Jiří ; Nechvátal, Luděk ; Oweisová, S. ; Homola, V. ; Titov, Andrii ; Slávik, Ondrej ; Miháliková, Ivana ; Pavlů, Jana ; Buršíková, V. ; Neugebauer, J. ; Boutur, D. ; Lapusta, Y. ; Šob, Mojmír
Our modern industrialized society increasingly requires new structural materials\nfor high-temperature applications in automotive and energy-producing industrial\nsectors. Iron-aluminides are known to possess excellent oxidation and sulfidation\nresistance as well as sufficient strength at elevated temperatures. New Fe-Al-based\nmaterials will have to meet multiple casting, processing and operational criteria\nincluding high-temperature creep strength, oxidation resistance and room-temperature\nductility. Such desirable combination of materials properties can be achieved in multi-phase\nmulti-component superalloys with a specific type of microstructure (the matrix contains\ncoherent particles of a secondary phase - a superalloy microstructure). In order to design\nnew Fe-Al-based superalloys, we employ a state-ofthe-art theory-guided materials design\nconcept to identify suitable combinations of solutes.
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