AndreaBozzo/ceres-open-data-index huggingface dataset:
Giant Chern number of a Weyl nodal surface without upper limit

Weyl nodes can be classified into zero-dimensional (0D) Weyl points, 1D Weyl nodal lines, and 2D Weyl nodal surfaces (WNS), which possess finite Chern numbers. Up to date, the largest Chern number of WPs identified in Weyl semimetals is 4, which is thought to be a maximal value for linearly crossing points in solids. On the other hand, whether the Chern numbers of nonzero-dimensional linear crossing Weyl nodal objects have one upper limit is still an open question. In this work, combining angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy with density-functional theory calculations, we show that the chiral crystal AlPt hosts a cube-shaped charged WNS which is formed by the linear crossings of two singly degenerate bands. Different from conventional Weyl nodes, the cube-shaped nodal surface in AlPt is enforced by nonsymmorphic chiral symmetries and time-reversal symmetry rather than accidental band crossings, and it possesses a giant Chern number |C|=26. Moreover, our results and analysis prove that there is no upper limit for the Chern numbers of such kind of 2D Weyl nodal object. This record includes the data in the related paper Phys. Rev. B 105, 115118 – Published 14 March 2022.

Tags: giant-chern-number, unpaired-weyl-point, weyl-nodal-surface, weyl-nodal-wall
The energy landscape of magnetic materials

Magnetic materials can display many solutions to the electronic-structure problem, corresponding to different local or global minima of the energy functional. In Hartree-Fock or density-functional theory different single-determinant solutions lead to different magnetizations, ionic oxidation states, hybridizations, and inter-site magnetic couplings. The vast majority of these states can be fingerprinted through their projection on the atomic orbitals of the magnetic ions. We have devised an approach that provides an effective control over these occupation matrices, allowing us to systematically explore the landscape of the potential energy surface. We showcase the emergence of a complex zoology of self-consistent states; even more so when semi-local density-functional theory is augmented - and typically made more accurate - by Hubbard corrections. Such extensive explorations allow to robustly identify the ground state of magnetic systems, and to assess the accuracy (or not) of current functionals and approximations

Tags: density-functional-theory, high-throughput, marvel, openmodel
A complementary screening for quantum spin Hall insulators in 2D exfoliable materials

Quantum spin Hall insulators (QSHIs) are a class of topological materials that has been extensively studied during the past decade. One of their distinctive features is the presence of a finite band gap in the bulk and gapless, topologically protected edge states that are spin-momentum locked. These materials are characterized by a Z₂ topological order where, in the 2D case, a single topological invariant can be even or odd for a trivial or a topological material, respectively. Thanks to their interesting properties, such as the realization of dissipationless spin currents, spin pumping and spin filtering, they are of great interest in the field of electronics, spintronics and quantum computing. In this work we perform an high-throughput screening of QSHI starting from a set of 783 2D exfoliable materials (603 after removing materials with lanthanides), recently identified from a systematic screening of the ICSD, COD, and MPDS databases (MC2D). In this screening we identify 4 Z₂ topological insulators, 3 of which already known in the literature, and 7 direct gap metals with the potential of becoming QSHIs under a reasonable external perturbation.

All the data are also displayed in the dedicated DISCOVER section "2D topological insulators" https://www.materialscloud.org/discover/2dtopo/dashboard/ptable

Tags: 2d-materials, dft, marvel, quantum-espresso, quantum-spin-hall, topological-insulator
Anharmonic exciton-phonon coupling in metal-organic chalcogenides hybrid quantum wells

In contrast to inorganic quantum wells, hybrid quantum wells (HQWs) based on metal-organic semiconductors are characterized by relatively soft lattices, in which excitonic states can strongly couple to lattice phonons. Therefore, understanding the lattice's impact on exciton dynamics is essential for harnessing the optoelectronic potential of HQWs. Beyond 2D metal halide perovskites, layered metal-organic chalcogenides (MOCs) are an air-stable, underexplored material class hosting room-temperature excitons that could be exploited as photodetectors, light emitting devices, and ultrafast photoswitches. Here, we elucidate the role of phonons in the optical transitions of the prototypical MOC [AgSePh]∞. Impulsive stimulated Raman scattering (ISRS) allows us to detect coherent exciton oscillations driven by Fröhlich interaction with low-energy optical phonons. Steady state absorption and Raman spectroscopies reveal a strong exciton-phonon coupling (Huang-Rhys parameter ~1.7) and its anharmonicity, manifested as non-trivial temperature-dependent Stokes shift. Our ab initio calculations support these observations, hinting at an anharmonic behavior of the low-energy phonons < 200 cm⁻¹. Our results untangle complex exciton-phonon interactions in MOCs, establishing an ideal testbed for room-temperature many-body phenomena.

Tags: exciton-phonon-coupling, metal-organic-chalcogenides, raman-spectroscopy
Learning the electronic density of states in condensed matter

The electronic density of states (DOS) quantifies the distribution of the energy levels that can be occupied by electrons in a quasiparticle picture and is central to modern electronic structure theory. It also underpins the computation and interpretation of experimentally observable material properties such as optical absorption and electrical conductivity. We discuss the challenges inherent in the construction of a machine-learning (ML) framework aimed at predicting the DOS as a combination of local contributions that depend in turn on the geometric configuration of neighbors around each atom, using quasiparticle energy levels from density functional theory as training data. We present a challenging case study that includes configurations of silicon spanning a broad set of thermodynamic conditions, ranging from bulk structures to clusters and from semiconducting to metallic behavior. We compare different approaches to represent the DOS, and the accuracy of predicting quantities such as the Fermi level, the electron density at the Fermi level, or the band energy, either directly or as a side product of the evaluation of the DOS. We find that the performance of the model depends crucially on the resolution chosen to smooth the DOS and that there is a tradeoff to be made between the systematic error associated with the smoothing and the error in the ML model for a specific structure. We find however that the errors are not strongly correlated among similar structures, and so the average DOS over an ensemble of configurations is in very good agreement with the reference electronic structure calculations, despite the large nominal error on individual configurations. We demonstrate the usefulness of this approach by computing the density of states of a large amorphous silicon sample, for which it would be prohibitively expensive to compute the DOS by direct electronic structure calculations and show how the atom-centered decomposition of the DOS that is obtained through our model can be used to extract physical insights into the connections between structural and electronic features.

Tags: cosmo-epfl, marvel, snsf
Fixed node diffusion Monte Carlo energies for over one thousand small organic molecules

In the past decade, quantum diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) has been demonstrated to successfully predict the energetics and properties of a wide range of molecules and solids by numerically solving the electronic many-body Schrödinger equation. We show that when coupled with quantum machine learning (QML) based surrogate methods the computational burden can be alleviated such that QMC shows clear potential to undergird the formation of high quality descriptions across chemical space. We discuss three crucial approximations necessary to accomplish this: The fixed node approximation, universal and accurate references for chemical bond dissociation energies, and scalable minimal amons set based QML (AQML) models. Numerical evidence presented includes converged DMC results for over one thousand small organic molecules with up to 5 heavy atoms used as amons, and 50 medium sized organic molecules with 9 heavy atoms to validate the AQML predictions. Numerical evidence collected for 𝛥-AQML models suggests that already modestly sized QMC training data sets of amons suffice to predict total energies  with near chemical accuracy throughout chemical space. In this archive, we present DMC energies for over one thousand small organic molecules with up to 5 heavy atoms, and 50 medium sized organic molecules with 9 heavy atoms, as well as energies computed at cheaper levels of theory such as HF, DFT, MP2 and CCSD(T).

Tags: chemical-space, marvel, quantum-machine-learning, quantum-monte-carlo
koopmans: an open-source package for accurately and efficiently predicting spectral properties with Koopmans functionals

Over the past decade we have developed Koopmans functionals, a computationally efficient approach for predicting spectral properties with an orbital-density-dependent functional formulation. These functionals address two fundamental issues with density functional theory (DFT). First, while Kohn-Sham eigenvalues can loosely mirror experimental quasiparticle energies, they are not meant to reproduce excitation energies and there is formally no connection between the two (except for the HOMO for the exact functional). Second, (semi-)local DFT deviates from the expected piecewise linear behavior of the energy as a function of the total number of electrons. This can make eigenvalues an even poorer proxy for quasiparticle energies and, together with the absence of the exchange-correlation derivative discontinuity, contributes to DFT's underestimation of band gaps. By enforcing a generalized piecewise linearity condition to the entire electronic manifold, Koopmans functionals yield molecular orbital energies and solids-state band structures with comparable accuracy to many-body perturbation theory but at greatly reduced computational cost and preserving a functional formulation. This paper introduces "koopmans", an open-source package that contains all of the code and workflows needed to perform Koopmans functional calculations without requiring expert knowledge. The theory and algorithms behind Koopmans functionals are summarized, and it is shown how one can easily use the koopmans package to obtain reliable spectral properties of molecules and materials.

This archive contains files that accompany the article of the same name.

Tags: charged-excitations, electronic-bands, electronic-structure, koopmans-spectral-functionals, marvel, orbital-density-dependent-functionals, snsf
Simulation of 1/f charge noise affecting a quantum dot in a Si/SiGe structure

Due to presence of magnetic field gradient needed for coherent spin control, dephasing of single-electron spin qubits in silicon quantum dots is often dominated by 1/f charge noise. We investigate theoretically fluctuations of ground state energy of an electron in gated quantum dot in realistic Si/SiGe structure. We assume that the charge noise is caused by motion of charges trapped at the semiconductor-oxide interface. We consider a realistic range of trapped charge densities, ρ∼10¹⁰ cm⁻², and typical lenghtscales of isotropically distributed displacements of these charges, δr≤1 nm, and identify pairs (ρ,δr) for which the amplitude and shape of the noise spectrum is in good agreement with spectra reconstructed in recent experiments on similar structures.

Tags: charge-noise, quantum-dots, simulation
Organic solar cells with eco-friendly preparation to achieve an efficiency of 20%

Thin film organic photovoltaics (OPVs) aspire to extract solar energy in a green, high efficiency, and cost-effective pathway, offering a sustainable solution to energy and ecosystem. We take the effort of developing low ecological harmful solvent processing of OPV devices and mini-modules, to strengthen the environmental benefits of OPV. New formula utilizing safer solvents enhanced with additives affords an optimal laboratory device efficiency of 20% as well as superior operational and thermal stability. Mini-module shows an efficiency up to 17.6% in upscaled processing, representing the highest performance for green solvent OPV development. Suitable nanoscaled phase separation is obtained in together with a micron-scale surface wrinkle pattern from the new developed processing strategy. Thus efficient photon-to-electron conversion at nano-interfaces and light extraction in broader receiving angles is achieved, which allows for more flexible installation geometries in building-integrated applications.

Tags: long-term-lifetime, organic-solar-cells, sustainability
A low-temperature prismatic slip instability in Mg understood using machine learning potentials

Prismatic slip in magnesium at temperatures T ≲ 150 K occurs at ∼ 100 MPa independent of temperature, and jerky flow due to large prismatic dislocation glide distances is observed; this athermal regime is not understood. In contrast, the behavior at T ≳ 150 K is understood to be governed by a thermally-activated double-cross-slip of the stable basal screw dislocation through an unstable or weakly metastable prism screw configuration and back to the basal screw. Here, a range of neural network potentials (NNPs) that are very similar for many properties of Mg including the basal-prism-basal cross-slip path and pro- cess, are shown to have an instability in prism slip at a potential-dependent critical stress. One NNP, NNP-77, has a critical instability stress in good agreement with experiments and also has basal-prism-basal transition path energies in very good agreement with DFT results, making it an excellent potential for understanding Mg prism slip. Full 3d simulations of the expansion of a prismatic loop using NNP-77 then also show a transition from cross-slip onto the basal plane at low stresses to prismatic loop expansion with no cross- slip at higher stresses, consistent with in-situ TEM observations. These results reveal (i) the origin and prediction of the observed unstable low-T prismatic slip in Mg and (ii) the critical use of machine-learning potentials to guide discovery and understanding of new important metallurgical behavior.

Tags: magnesium, marvel, minimum-energy-path, neural-network-potential, prismatic-slip
Phase formation capability of β-(REI0.25REII0.25REIII0.25REIV0.25)2Si2O7: towards compositional design of multiple rare earth principal components

A key strategy to design environmental barrier coatings has been focused on doping multiple rare-earth principal components into β-type rare-earth disilicates (RE2Si2O7) to achieve versatile property optimization. However, controlling the phase formation capability of (nRExi)2Si2O7 remains a crucial challenge, due to the complex polymorphic phase competitions and evolutions led by different RE3+ combination. Herein by fabricating twenty-one model (REI0.25REII0.25REIII0.25REIV0.25)2Si2O7 compounds, we find that their formation capability can be evaluated by the ability to accommodate configurational randomness of multiple RE3+ cations in β-type lattice while preventing the β-to-γ polymorphic transformation. The phase formation and stabilization are controlled by the average RE3+ radius and the deviations of different RE3+ combinations. Subsequently, based on high-throughput density-functional-theory calculations, we propose that the configurational entropy of mixing is a reliable descriptor to predict the phase formation of β-type (nRExi)2Si2O7. The results may accelerate the design of novel (nRExi)2Si2O7 materials with tailored compositions and controlled polymorphic phases.

Tags: density-functional-theory, environmental-barrier-coating, experimental, high-entropy-ceramics, phase-formation, rare-earth-disilicate
Phase formation capability and compositional design of β-phase multiple rare-earth principal component disilicates

A key strategy to design environmental barrier coatings focuses on doping multiple rare-earth principal components into β-type rare-earth disilicates (RE2Si2O7) to achieve versatile property optimization. However, controlling the phase formation capability of (nRExi)2Si2O7 remains a crucial challenge, due to the complex polymorphic phase competitions and evolutions led by different RE3+ combination. Herein, by fabricating twenty-one model (REI0.25REII0.25REIII0.25REIV0.25)2Si2O7 compounds, we find that their formation capability can be evaluated by the ability to accommodate configurational randomness of multiple RE3+ cations in β-type lattice while preventing the β-to-γ polymorphic transformation. The phase formation and stabilization are controlled by the average RE3+ radius and the deviations of different RE3+ combinations. Subsequently, based on high-throughput density-functional-theory calculations, we propose that the configurational entropy of mixing is a reliable descriptor to predict the phase formation of β-type (nRExi)2Si2O7. The results may accelerate the design of (nRExi)2Si2O7 materials with tailored compositions and controlled polymorphic phases.

Tags: density-functional-theory, environmental-barrier-coating, experimental, high-entropy-ceramics, phase-formation, rare-earth-disilicate
Charting the landscape of Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer superconductors in experimentally known compounds

We perform a high-throughput computational search for novel phonon-mediated superconductors, starting from the Materials Cloud 3-dimensional database (MC3D) of experimentally known inorganic stoichiometric compounds. We first compute the Allen-Dynes critical temperature Tc for 4533 non-magnetic metals using a direct and progressively finer sampling of the electron-phonon couplings. For the candidates with the largest Tc, we use automated Wannierizations and electron-phonon interpolations to obtain a high-quality dataset for the most promising 240 dynamically stable structures, for which we calculate spectral functions, superconducting bandgaps, and isotropic Migdal-Eliashberg critical temperatures. For 110 of these, we also provide anisotropic Migdal-Eliashberg superconducting gaps and critical temperatures. The approach is remarkably successful in finding known superconductors, and we find 24 unknown ones with a predicted anisotropic Tc above 10 K. Among them, we identify a possible double gap superconductor (p-doped BaB2), a non-magnetic half-Heusler ZrRuSb, and the perovskite TaRu3C, all exhibiting significant Tc. Finally, we introduce a sensitivity analysis to estimate the robustness of the predictions.

Tags: electron-phonon-coupling, first-principles, high-throughput, migdal-eliashberg, superconductivity
Prediction rigidities for data-driven chemistry

The widespread application of machine learning (ML) to the chemical sciences is making it very important to understand how the ML models learn to correlate chemical structures with their properties, and what can be done to improve the training efficiency whilst guaranteeing interpretability and transferability. In this work, we demonstrate the wide utility of prediction rigidities, a family of metrics derived from the loss function, in understanding the robustness of ML model predictions. We show that the prediction rigidities allow the assessment of the model not only at the global level, but also on the local or the component-wise level at which the intermediate (e.g. atomic, body-ordered, or range-separated) predictions are made. We leverage these metrics to understand the learning behavior of different ML models, and to guide efficient dataset construction for model training. We finally implement the formalism for a ML model targeting a coarse-grained system to demonstrate the applicability of the prediction rigidities to an even broader class of atomistic modeling problems.
This record contains all the data used for the analyses conducted in the associated work published in Faraday Discussions.

Tags: machine-learning, ml-model-robustness, prediction-rigidity, uncertainty-quantification
Excited-state forces with the Gaussian and augmented plane wave method for the Tamm–Dancoff approximation of time-dependent density functional theory

Augmented plane wave methods enable an efficient description of atom-centered or localized features of the electronic density, circumventing high energy cutoffs and thus prohibitive computational costs of pure plane wave formulations. To complement existing implementations for ground-state properties and excitation energies, we present the extension of the Gaussian and augmented plane wave method to excited-state nuclear gradients within the Tamm–Dancoff approximation of time-dependent density functional theory and its implementation in the CP2K program package. Benchmarks for a test set of 35 small molecules demonstrate that maximum errors in the nuclear forces for excited states of singlet and triplet spin multiplicity are smaller than 0.1 eV/Å. The method is furthermore applied to the calculation of the zero-phonon line of defective hexagonal boron nitride. This spectral feature is reproduced with an error of 0.6 eV in comparison to GW–Bethe–Salpeter reference computations and 0.4 eV in comparison to experimental measurements. Accuracy assessments and applications thus demonstrate the potential use of the outlined developments for large-scale applications on excited-state properties of extended systems. The data in this record are supplementary data to the published article with DOI 10.1021/acs.jctc.4c00614.

Tags: augmented-plane-wave-methods, gaussian-basis-sets, time-dependent-density-functional-theory
Surface and interface effects in oxygen deficient SrMnO3 thin films grown on SrTiO3

Complex oxide functionality, such as ferroelectricity, magnetism or superconductivity is often achieved in epitaxial thin-film geometries. Oxygen vacancies tend to be the dominant type of defect in these materials but a fundamental understanding of their stability and electronic structure has so far mostly been established in the bulk or strained bulk, neglecting interfaces and surfaces present in a thin-film geometry. We investigate here, via density functional theory calculations, oxygen vacancies in the model system of a SrMnO3 (SMO) thin film grown on a SrTiO3 (STO) (001) substrate. Structural and electronic differences compared to bulk SMO result mainly from undercoordination at the film surface. The changed crystal field leads to a depletion of subsurface valence-band states and transfer of this charge to surface Mn atoms, both of which strongly affect the defect chemistry in the film. The result is a strong preference of oxygen vacancies in the surface region compared to deeper layers. Finally, for metastable oxygen vacancies in the substrate, we predict a spatial separation of the defect from its excess charge, the latter being accommodated in the film but close to the substrate boundary. These results show that surface and interface effects lead to significant differences in stability and electronic structure of oxygen vacancies in thin-film geometries compared to the (strained) bulk.

Tags: crystal-field, cscs, interface, oxygen-vacancy, snsf, srmno3, srtio3, surface, thin-film