Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Molecular dynamics simulations of substitutional diffusion

Journal Article · · Computational Materials Science
 [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)

In atomistic simulations, diffusion energy barriers are usually calculated for each atomic jump path using a nudged elastic band method. Practical materials often involve thousands of distinct atomic jump paths that are not known a priori. Hence, it is often preferred to determine an overall diffusion energy barrier and an overall pre-exponential factor from the Arrhenius equation constructed through molecular dynamics simulations of mean square displacement of the diffusion species at different temperatures. This approach has been well established for interstitial diffusion, but not for substitutional diffusion at the same confidence. Using In 0.1 Ga 0.9 N as an example, we have identified conditions where molecular dynamics simulations can be used to calculate highly converged Arrhenius plots for substitutional alloys. As a result, this may enable many complex diffusion problems to be easily and reliably studied in the future using molecular dynamics, provided that moderate computing resources are available.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC04-94AL85000
OSTI ID:
1333612
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1400045
OSTI ID: 1550638
OSTI ID: 1456351
Report Number(s):
SAND--2016-7921J; PII: S0927025616306085
Journal Information:
Computational Materials Science, Journal Name: Computational Materials Science; ISSN 0927-0256
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (14)

Fast Parallel Algorithms for Short-Range Molecular Dynamics journal March 1995
A space–time-ensemble parallel nudged elastic band algorithm for molecular kinetics simulation journal February 2008
Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Hydrogen Diffusion in Aluminum journal March 2016
Congruent melting of gallium nitride at 6 GPa and its application to single-crystal growth journal October 2003
Improved tangent estimate in the nudged elastic band method for finding minimum energy paths and saddle points journal December 2000
A climbing image nudged elastic band method for finding saddle points and minimum energy paths journal December 2000
III–nitrides: Growth, characterization, and properties journal February 2000
A Liouville-operator derived measure-preserving integrator for molecular dynamics simulations in the isothermal–isobaric ensemble journal April 2006
Canonical dynamics: Equilibrium phase-space distributions journal March 1985
Computer simulation of local order in condensed phases of silicon journal April 1985
Melting line of aluminum from simulations of coexisting phases journal February 1994
Rapid estimation of elastic constants by molecular dynamics simulation under constant stress journal April 2004
Stillinger-Weber potential for the II-VI elements Zn-Cd-Hg-S-Se-Te journal August 2013
Influence of apparatus geometry and deposition conditions on the structure and topography of thick sputtered coatings journal July 1974

Cited By (3)

Predictive modeling of misfit dislocation induced strain relaxation effect on self-rolling of strain-engineered nanomembranes journal September 2018
Vacancy-assisted core transformation and mobility modulation of a-type edge dislocations in wurtzite GaN journal September 2019
Effect of indium doping on motions of 〈 a 〉-prismatic edge dislocations in wurtzite gallium nitride journal May 2019

Similar Records

Molecular dynamics simulations of hydrogen diffusion in aluminum
Journal Article · Wed Mar 23 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Journal of Physical Chemistry. C · OSTI ID:1249082

Modelling of monovacancy diffusion in W over wide temperature range
Journal Article · Fri Mar 28 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Journal of Applied Physics · OSTI ID:22271167

Mechanism for transient migration of xenon in UO{sub 2}
Journal Article · Mon Apr 11 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Applied Physics Letters · OSTI ID:21518384