We carried out a combined experimental and theoretical study of grain boundaries in polycrystalline diamond, aimed at achieving the conditions in which grain boundaries are equilibrated. Raman spectra of compacted at high-pressure and high-temperature diamond powders allow us to identify signals from sp(2)-bonded atoms, in addition to a strong peak at 1332 cm(-1), corresponding to sp(3)-bonded carbon. To verify our interpretation of the experiment, Sigma 5 (001) twist grain boundaries of polycrystalline diamond were studied by means of molecular dynamics simulations using the technique proposed by von Alfthan et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 055505 (2006)]. We find that grain-boundary (GB) configurations, from which one atom is removed, have significantly lower energy compared to those obtained with conventional techniques. These calculated GBs are highly ordered, a few monolayers thick, in agreement with experimental observations, and are primarily sp(2) bonded. This paper underlines the importance of varying the number of atoms within GBs in molecular dynamics simulations to correctly predict the GB ground-state structure.

Stability and dissipation in the propagation of the electronic degrees of freedom in time-reversible extended Lagrangian Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics [Niklasson , Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 123001 (2006); Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 123004 (2008)] are analyzed. Because of the time-reversible propagation the dynamics of the extended electronic degrees of freedom is lossless with no dissipation of numerical errors. For long simulation times under "noisy" conditions, numerical errors may therefore accumulate to large fluctuations. We solve this problem by including a dissipative external electronic force that removes noise while keeping the energy stable. The approach corresponds to a Langevin-like dynamics for the electronic degrees of freedom with internal numerical error fluctuations and external, approximately energy conserving, dissipative forces. By tuning the dissipation to balance the numerical fluctuations the external perturbation can be kept to a minimum.

Extended Lagrangian Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics [A. M. N. Niklasson, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 123004 (2008)] has been generalized to the propagation of the electronic wave functions. The technique allows highly efficient first principles molecular dynamics simulations using plane wave pseudopotential electronic structure methods that are stable and energy conserving also under incomplete and approximate selfconsistency convergence. An implementation of the method within the plane-wave basis set is presented and the accuracy and efficiency is demonstrated both for semiconductor and metallic materials.

Extended free energy Lagrangians are proposed for first principles molecular dynamics simulations at finite electronic temperatures for plane-wave pseudopotential and local orbital density matrix-based calculations. Thanks to the extended Lagrangian description, the electronic degrees of freedom can be integrated by stable geometric schemes that conserve the free energy. For the local orbital representations both the nuclear and electronic forces have simple and numerically efficient expressions that are well suited for reduced complexity calculations. A rapidly converging recursive Fermi operator expansion method that does not require the calculation of eigenvalues and eigen-functions for the construction of the fractionally occupied density matrix is discussed. An efficient expression for the Pulay force that is valid also for density matrices with fractional occupation occurring at finite electronic temperatures is also demonstrated.

The equation of state for chromium nitride has been debated in the literature in connection with a proposed collapse of its bulk modulus following the pressure-induced transition from the paramagnetic cubic phase to the antiferromagnetic orthorhombic phase [F. Rivadulla et al., Nature Mater. 8, 947 (2009); B. Alling et al., ibid. 9, 283 (2010)]. Experimentally the measurements are complicated due to the low transition pressure, while theoretically the simulation of magnetic disorder represents a major challenge. Here a first-principles method is suggested for the calculation of thermodynamic properties of magnetic materials in their high-temperature paramagnetic phase. It is based on ab initio molecular dynamics and simultaneous redistributions of the disordered but finite local magnetic moments. We apply this disordered local moments molecular dynamics method to the case of CrN and simulate its equation of state. In particular the debated bulk modulus is calculated in the paramagnetic cubic phase and is shown to be very similar to that of the antiferromagnetic orthorhombic CrN phase for all considered temperatures.

Elastic properties of cubic TiN are studied theoretically in a wide temperature interval. First-principles simulations are based on ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD). Computational efficiency of the method is greatly enhanced by a careful preparation of the initial state of the simulation cell that minimizes or completely removes a need for equilibration and therefore allows for parallel AIMD calculations. Elastic constants C₁₁, C₁₂, and C₄₄ are calculated. A strong dependence on the temperature is predicted, with C₁₁ decreasing by more than 29% at 1800 K as compared to its value obtained at T=0 K. Furthermore, we analyze the effect of temperature on the elastic properties of polycrystalline TiN in terms of the bulk and shear moduli, the Young's modulus and Poisson ratio. We construct sound velocity anisotropy maps, investigate the temperature dependence of elastic anisotropy of TiN, and observe that the material becomes substantially more isotropic at high temperatures. Our results unambiguously demonstrate the importance of taking into account finite temperature effects in theoretical calculations of elastic properties of materials intended for high-temperature applications.

We use metastable NaCl-structure Ti_0.5Al_0.5N alloys to probe effects of configurational disorder on adatom surface diffusion dynamics which control phase stability and nanostructural evolution during film growth. First-principles calculations were employed to obtain energy potential maps of Ti and Al adsorption on an ordered TiN(001) reference surface and a disordered Ti_0.5Al_0.5N(001) solid-solution surface. The energetics of adatom migration on these surfaces are determined and compared to isolate effects of configurational disorder. The results show that alloy surface disorder dramatically reduces Ti adatom mobilities. Al adatoms, in sharp contrast, experience only small disorder-induced differences in migration dynamics.