The knowledge of lattice thermal conductivity of materials under realistic conditions is vitally important since many modern technologies require either high or low thermal conductivity. Here, we propose a theoretical model for determining lattice thermal conductivity, which takes into account the effect of microstructure. It is based on ab initio description that includes the temperature dependence of the interatomic force constants and treats anharmonic lattice vibrations. We choose ScN as a model system, comparing the computational predictions to the experimental data by time-domain thermoreflectance. Our experimental results show a trend of reduction in lattice thermal conductivity with decreasing domain size predicted by the theoretical model. These results suggest a possibility to control thermal conductivity by microstructural tailoring and provide a predictive tool for the effect of the microstructure on the lattice thermal conductivity of materials based on ab initio calculations.

In this work, we discuss the mixing thermodynamics of cubic (B1) Ti1-xAlxN/TiN(001) multilayers. We show that interfacial effects suppress the mixing enthalpy compared to bulk Ti1-xAlxN. The strongest stabilization occurs for compositions in which the mixing enthalpy of bulk Ti1-xAlxN has its maximum. The effect is split into a strain and an interfacial (or chemical) contribution, and we show that both contributions are significant. An analysis of the local atomic structure reveals that the Ti atoms located in the interfacial layers relax significantly different from those in the other atomic layers of the multilayer. Considering the electronic structure of the studied system, we demonstrate that the lower Ti-site projected density of states at epsilon(F) in the Ti1-xAlxN/TiN multilayers compared to the corresponding monolithic bulk explains a decreased tendency toward decomposition.

The elastic properties of alloys between boron suboxide (B₆O) and boron carbide (B₁₃C₂), denoted by (B₆O)_1−x(B₁₃C₂)_x, as well as boron carbide with variable carbon content, ranging from B₁₃C₂ to B₄C are calculated from first-principles. Furthermore, the mixing thermodynamics of (B₆O)_1−x(B₁₃C₂)x is studied. A superatom-special quasirandom structure approach is used for modeling different atomic configurations, in which effects of configurational disorder between the carbide and suboxide structural units, as well as between boron and carbon atoms within the units, are taken into account. Elastic properties calculations demonstrate that configurational  disorder in B₁₃C₂, where a part of the C atoms in the CBC chains substitute for B atoms in the B12 icosahedra, drastically increase the Young’s and shear modulus, as compared to an atomically ordered state, B₁₂(CBC). These calculated elastic moduli of the disordered state are in excellent agreement with experiments. Configurational disorder between boron and carbon can also explain the experimentally observed almost constant elastic moduli of boron carbide as the carbon content is changed from B₄C to B₁₃C₂. The elastic moduli of the (B₆O)_1−x(B₁₃C₂)_x system are also practically unchanged with composition if boron-carbon disorder is taken into account. By investigating the mixing thermodynamics of the alloys, in which the Gibbs free energy is determined within the mean-field approximation for the configurational entropy, we outline the pseudo-binary phase diagram of (B₆O)_1−x(B₁₃C₂)_x. The phase diagram reveals the existence of a miscibility gap at all temperatures up to the melting point. Also, the coexistence of B₆O-rich as well as ordered or disordered B₁₃C₂-rich domains in the material prepared through equilibrium routes is predicted.

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.

Due to a large discrepancy between theory and experiment, the electronic character of crystalline boron carbide B13C2 has been a controversial topic in the field of icosahedral boron-rich solids. We demonstrate that this discrepancy is removed when configurational disorder is accurately considered in the theoretical calculations. We find that while the ordered ground state B13C2 is metallic, the configurationally disordered B13C2, modeled with a superatom-special quasirandom structure method, goes through a metal to nonmetal transition as the degree of disorder is increased with increasing temperature. Specifically, one of the chain-end carbon atoms in the CBC chains substitutes a neighboring equatorial boron atom in a B-12 icosahedron bonded to it, giving rise to a B11Ce(BBC) unit. The atomic configuration of the substitutionally disordered B13C2 thus tends to be dominated by a mixture between B-12(CBC) and B11Ce(BBC). Due to splitting of valence states in B11Ce(BBC), the electron deficiency in B-12(CBC) is gradually compensated.

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 Earths 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.

The sound velocity of Mo along the Hugoniot adiabat is calculated from first principles using density-functional theory based molecular dynamics. These data are compared to the sound velocity as measured in recent experiments. The theoretical and experimental Hugoniot and sound velocities are in very good agreement up to pressures of 210 GPa and temperatures of 3700 K on the Hugoniot. However, above that point the experiment and theory diverge. This implies that Mo undergoes a phase transition at about the same point. Considering that the melting point of Mo is likely much higher at that pressure, the related change in the sound velocity in experiment can be ascribed to a solid-solid transition.

We have performed a numerical study of the process of electron localization in reduced ceria. Our results show that different localized charge distributions can be attained in a bulk system by varying the lattice parameter. We demonstrate that the effect of electron localization is mainly determined by lattice relaxation and an accurate account for the effects of electronic correlation is necessary to achieve localized charge distribution.

Configurationally disordered crystalline boron carbide, with the composition B4C, is studied using first-principles calculations. We investigate both dilute and high concentrations of carbon-boron substitutional defects. For the latter purpose, we suggest a superatoms picture of the complex structure and combine it with a special quasirandom structure approach for disorder. In this way, we model a random distribution of high concentrations of the identified low-energy defects: (1) bipolar defects and (2) rotation of icosahedral carbon among the three polar-up sites. Additionally, the substitutional disorder of the icosahedral carbon at all six polar sites, as previously discussed in the literature, is also considered. Two configurational phase transitions from the ordered to the disordered configurations are predicted to take place upon an increase in temperature using a mean-field approximation for the entropy. The first transition, at 870 K, induces substitutional disorder of the icosahedral carbon atoms among the three polar-up sites; meanwhile the second transition, at 2325 K, reveals the random substitution of the icosahedral carbon atoms at all six polar sites coexisting with bipolar defects. Already the first transition removes the monoclinic distortion existing in the ordered ground-state configuration and restore the rhombohedral system (R3m). The restoration of inversion symmetry yielding the full rhombohedral symmetry (R (3) over barm) on average, corresponding to what is reported in the literature, is achieved after the second transition. Investigating the effects of high pressure on the configurational stability of the disordered B4C phases reveals a tendency to stabilize the ordered ground-state configuration as the configurationally ordering/disordering transition temperature increases with pressure exerted on B4C. The electronic density of states, obtained from the disordered phases, indicates a sensitivity of the band gap to the degree of configurational disorder in B4C.

We employ state-of-the-art ab initio simulations within the dynamical mean-field theory to study three likely phases of iron (hcp, fcc, and bcc) at the Earth's core conditions. We demonstrate that the correction to the electronic free energy due to correlations can be significant for the relative stability of the phases. The strongest effect is observed in bcc Fe, which shows a non-Fermi-liquid behavior, and where a Curie-Weiss behavior of the uniform susceptibility hints at a local magnetic moment still existing at 5800 K and 300 GPa. We predict that all three structures have sufficiently high magnetic susceptibility to stabilize the geodynamo.