Related papers: Zirconia and hafnia polymorphs -- ground state str…
We describe an empirical, self-consistent, orthogonal tight-binding model for zirconia, which allows for the polarizability of the anions at dipole and quadrupole levels and for crystal field splitting of the cation d orbitals. This is…
Ferroelectricity in binary oxides including hafnia and zirconia have riveted the attention of the scientific community due to highly unconventional physical mechanisms and the potential for integration of these materials into semiconductor…
Energy levels, magnetic dipole, and electric quadrupole hyperfine structure of the superheavy element rutherfordium (Rf, $Z$=104) and its first three ions are calculated using a combination of the configuration interaction, coupled-cluster…
Zirconia is viewed as a material of exceptional resistance to amorphization by radiation damage, and consequently proposed as a candidate to immobilize nuclear waste and serve as an inert nuclear fuel matrix. Here, we perform molecular…
Zirconium alloys are used as nuclear fuel cladding material due to their mechanical and corrosion resistant properties together with their favorable cross-section for neutron scattering. At running conditions, however, there will be an…
Two new hypothetical zirconium diboride (ZrB2) polymorphs: (hP6-P63/mmc space group, no.194) and (oP6-Pmmn-space group, no.59), were thoroughly studied under the first-principles density functional theory calculations from the structural,…
We investigate the possible stabilization of ferroelectricity in bulk Y2O3-doped hafnia and zirconia. We use density functional theory (DFT) with large random supercells of hafnia and zirconia and study the relative phase stability of the…
HfO$_2$-based ferroelectrics have emerged as promising materials for advanced nanoelectronics, with their robust polarization and silicon compatibility making them ideal for high-density, non-volatile memory applications. Oxygen vacancies,…
Zirconia (ZrO2) and hafnia (HfO2) are leading candidates for replacing SiO2 as the gate insulator in CMOS technology. Amorphous versions of these materials (a-ZrO2 and a-HfO2)) can be grown as metastable phases on top of a silicon buffer;…
We clarify the nature of hafnia as a proper ferroelectric and show that there is a shallow double well involving a single soft polar mode as in well-known classic ferroelectrics. Using symmetry analysis, density-functional theory (DFT)…
Study of nanoscale hafnia-zirconia physical properties is the key topic in fundamental and applied science. However, charge transport mechanisms and magnetic properties of hafnia-zirconia nanoparticles are very poorly studied both…
Zirconium hydride is an important material for storage of hydrogen isotopes. Here we report the structural, electronic, vibrational and thermodynamic properties of ZrH2, ZrD2 and ZrT2 using density functional theory (DFT). The structural…
We have applied the many-body ab-initio diffusion quantum Monte Carlo (DMC) method to study Zn and ZnO crystals under pressure, and the energetics of the oxygen vacancy, zinc interstitial and hydrogen impurities in ZnO. We show that DMC is…
Cubic hafnia (HfO$_2$) is of great interest for a number of applications in electronics because of its high dielectric constant. However, common defects in such applications degrade the properties of hafina. We have investigated the…
We present an analysis of the polymorphic energy ordering and properties of the rock salt and zincblende structures of manganese oxide using fixed node diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC). Manganese oxide is a correlated, antiferromagnetic material…
Because of its compatibility with semiconductor-based technologies, hafnia (HfO$_{2}$) is today's most promising ferroelectric material for applications in electronics. Yet, knowledge on the ferroic and electromechanical response properties…
Since the first report of ferroelectricity in nanoscale HfO$_2$-based thin films in 2011, this silicon-compatible binary oxide has quickly garnered intense interest in academia and industry, and continues to do so. Despite its deceivingly…
The discovery of ferroelectric properties of binary oxides revitalized the interest in ferroelectrics and bridged the scaling gap between the state-of-the-art semiconductor technology and ferroelectric memories. However, before hitting the…
We apply diffusion quantum Monte Carlo (DMC) to a broad set of solids, benchmarking the method by comparing bulk structural properties (equilibrium volume and bulk modulus) to experiment and DFT based theories. The test set includes…
Plutonium dihydride and trihydride show strikingly similar crystal structures when viewed as close-packed Pu planes with ABC and AB stacking, respectively. The similarity serves as a framework for density functional theory (DFT)…