Polymorphic improvement of Stillinger-Weber potential for InGaN
Abstract
A Stillinger-Weber potential is computationally very efficient for molecular dynamics simulations. Despite its simple mathematical form, the Stillinger-Weber potential can be easily parameterized to ensure that crystal structures with tetrahedral bond angles (e.g., diamond-cubic, zinc-blende, and wurtzite) are stable and have the lowest energy. As a result, the Stillinger-Weber potential has been widely used to study a variety of semiconductor elements and alloys. When studying an A-B binary system, however, the Stillinger-Weber potential is associated with two major drawbacks. First, it significantly overestimates the elastic constants of elements A and B, limiting its use for systems involving both compounds and elements (e.g., an A/AB multilayer). Second, it prescribes equal energy for zinc-blende and wurtzite crystals, limiting its use for compounds with large stacking fault energies. Here in this paper, we utilize the polymorphic potential style recently implemented in LAMMPS to develop a modified Stillinger-Weber potential for InGaN that overcomes these two problems.
- Authors:
-
- Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, California 94550, USA
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1421617
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1413823
- Report Number(s):
- SAND-2017-8628J
Journal ID: ISSN 0021-8979; 656200; TRN: US1801531
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000; NA0003525
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Applied Physics
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 122; Journal Issue: 23; Journal ID: ISSN 0021-8979
- Publisher:
- American Institute of Physics (AIP)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; Elastic moduli; Molecular dynamics; Transition; Crystal defects; Intermolecular forces
Citation Formats
Zhou, Xiaowang W., Jones, Reese E., and Chu, Kevin. Polymorphic improvement of Stillinger-Weber potential for InGaN. United States: N. p., 2017.
Web. doi:10.1063/1.5001339.
Zhou, Xiaowang W., Jones, Reese E., & Chu, Kevin. Polymorphic improvement of Stillinger-Weber potential for InGaN. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5001339
Zhou, Xiaowang W., Jones, Reese E., and Chu, Kevin. Thu .
"Polymorphic improvement of Stillinger-Weber potential for InGaN". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5001339. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1421617.
@article{osti_1421617,
title = {Polymorphic improvement of Stillinger-Weber potential for InGaN},
author = {Zhou, Xiaowang W. and Jones, Reese E. and Chu, Kevin},
abstractNote = {A Stillinger-Weber potential is computationally very efficient for molecular dynamics simulations. Despite its simple mathematical form, the Stillinger-Weber potential can be easily parameterized to ensure that crystal structures with tetrahedral bond angles (e.g., diamond-cubic, zinc-blende, and wurtzite) are stable and have the lowest energy. As a result, the Stillinger-Weber potential has been widely used to study a variety of semiconductor elements and alloys. When studying an A-B binary system, however, the Stillinger-Weber potential is associated with two major drawbacks. First, it significantly overestimates the elastic constants of elements A and B, limiting its use for systems involving both compounds and elements (e.g., an A/AB multilayer). Second, it prescribes equal energy for zinc-blende and wurtzite crystals, limiting its use for compounds with large stacking fault energies. Here in this paper, we utilize the polymorphic potential style recently implemented in LAMMPS to develop a modified Stillinger-Weber potential for InGaN that overcomes these two problems.},
doi = {10.1063/1.5001339},
journal = {Journal of Applied Physics},
number = 23,
volume = 122,
place = {United States},
year = {2017},
month = {12}
}
Figures / Tables:

Works referenced in this record:
Atomistic simulations of the vapor deposition of Ni/Cu/Ni multilayers: The effects of adatom incident energy
journal, August 1998
- Zhou, X. W.; Wadley, H. N. G.
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 84, Issue 4
The Nelder-Mead Simplex Procedure for Function Minimization
journal, February 1975
- Olsson, Donald M.; Nelson, Lloyd S.
- Technometrics, Vol. 17, Issue 1
Mechanical properties of thin films
journal, November 1989
- Nix, William D.
- Metallurgical Transactions A, Vol. 20, Issue 11
Thermodynamics and phase equilibria in the system GaIn using multi-parameter functions
journal, April 1993
- Ravindra Reddy, S.; Hajra, Jnan P.
- Calphad, Vol. 17, Issue 2
A Stillinger-Weber Potential for InGaN
journal, August 2017
- Zhou, X. W.; Jones, R. E.
- Journal of Materials Science Research, Vol. 6, Issue 4
Understanding misfit strain releasing mechanisms via molecular dynamics simulations of CdTe growth on {112}zinc-blende CdS
journal, July 2016
- Zhou, X. W.; Chavez, J. J.; Almeida, S.
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 120, Issue 4
The Art and Science of an Analytic Potential
journal, January 2000
- Brenner, D. W.
- physica status solidi (b), Vol. 217, Issue 1
Analytic bond-order potential for the gallium arsenide system
journal, January 2006
- Murdick, D. A.; Zhou, X. W.; Wadley, H. N. G.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 73, Issue 4
An atomistically validated continuum model for strain relaxation and misfit dislocation formation
journal, June 2016
- Zhou, X. W.; Ward, D. K.; Zimmerman, J. A.
- Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, Vol. 91
Bounded Analytic Bond-Order Potentials for and Bonds
journal, May 2000
- Pettifor, D. G.; Oleinik, I. I.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 84, Issue 18
An analytical bond-order potential for the aluminum copper binary system
journal, September 2016
- Zhou, X. W.; Ward, D. K.; Foster, M. E.
- Journal of Alloys and Compounds, Vol. 680
An analytical bond-order potential for the copper–hydrogen binary system
journal, January 2015
- Zhou, X. W.; Ward, D. K.; Foster, M.
- Journal of Materials Science, Vol. 50, Issue 7
Atomistic calculations of dislocation core energy in aluminium
journal, February 2017
- Zhou, X. W.; Sills, R. B.; Ward, D. K.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 95, Issue 5
A refined parameterization of the analytical Cd–Zn–Te bond-order potential
journal, November 2013
- Ward, Donald K.; Zhou, Xiaowang; Wong, Bryan M.
- Journal of Molecular Modeling, Vol. 19, Issue 12
Analytic bond-order potentials beyond Tersoff-Brenner. I. Theory
journal, April 1999
- Pettifor, D. G.; Oleinik, I. I.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 59, Issue 13
Stillinger-Weber potential for the II-VI elements Zn-Cd-Hg-S-Se-Te
journal, August 2013
- Zhou, X. W.; Ward, D. K.; Martin, J. E.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 88, Issue 8
Fast Parallel Algorithms for Short-Range Molecular Dynamics
journal, March 1995
- Plimpton, Steve
- Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 117, Issue 1
Molecular dynamics studies of material property effects on thermal boundary conductance
journal, January 2013
- Zhou, X. W.; Jones, R. E.; Duda, J. C.
- Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Vol. 15, Issue 26
ReaxFF: A Reactive Force Field for Hydrocarbons
journal, October 2001
- van Duin, Adri C. T.; Dasgupta, Siddharth; Lorant, Francois
- The Journal of Physical Chemistry A, Vol. 105, Issue 41
Elastic properties of zinc-blende and wurtzite AlN, GaN, and InN
journal, September 1997
- Wright, A. F.
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 82, Issue 6
An investigation of the properties of cubic GaN grown on GaAs by plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy
journal, July 1991
- Strite, S.
- Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B: Microelectronics and Nanometer Structures, Vol. 9, Issue 4
Accuracy of existing atomic potentials for the CdTe semiconductor compound
journal, June 2011
- Ward, D. K.; Zhou, X. W.; Wong, B. M.
- The Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 134, Issue 24
Analytic bond-order potential for open and close-packed phases
journal, April 2002
- Pettifor, D. G.; Oleinik, I. I.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 65, Issue 17
Energetics and electronic structure of stacking faults in AlN, GaN, and InN
journal, June 1998
- Stampfl, C.; Van de Walle, Chris G.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 57, Issue 24
A climbing image nudged elastic band method for finding saddle points and minimum energy paths
journal, December 2000
- Henkelman, Graeme; Uberuaga, Blas P.; Jónsson, Hannes
- The Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 113, Issue 22, p. 9901-9904
Analytical bond-order potential for the cadmium telluride binary system
journal, March 2012
- Ward, D. K.; Zhou, X. W.; Wong, B. M.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 85, Issue 11
Computer simulation of local order in condensed phases of silicon
journal, April 1985
- Stillinger, Frank H.; Weber, Thomas A.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 31, Issue 8
A Modified Stillinger-Weber Potential for TlBr, and Its Polymorphic Extension
journal, April 2015
- Zhou, X. W.; Foster, M. E.; Jones, Reese
- Journal of Materials Science Research, Vol. 4, Issue 3
Atomic scale structure of sputtered metal multilayers
journal, November 2001
- Zhou, X. W.; Wadley, H. N. G.; Johnson, R. A.
- Acta Materialia, Vol. 49, Issue 19
Molecular dynamics simulations of substitutional diffusion
journal, February 2017
- Zhou, X. W.; Jones, R. E.; Gruber, J.
- Computational Materials Science, Vol. 128
Improved tangent estimate in the nudged elastic band method for finding minimum energy paths and saddle points
journal, December 2000
- Henkelman, Graeme; Jónsson, Hannes
- The Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 113, Issue 22
Analytic bond-order potential for predicting structural trends across the -valent elements
journal, October 2005
- Drautz, Ralf; Murdick, Dewey A.; Nguyen-Manh, Duc
- Physical Review B, Vol. 72, Issue 14
Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Hydrogen Diffusion in Aluminum
journal, March 2016
- Zhou, X. W.; El Gabaly, F.; Stavila, V.
- The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, Vol. 120, Issue 14
Optimization by Simulated Annealing
journal, May 1983
- Kirkpatrick, S.; Gelatt, C. D.; Vecchi, M. P.
- Science, Vol. 220, Issue 4598
Molecular dynamics studies of defect formation during heteroepitaxial growth of InGaN alloys on (0001) GaN surfaces
journal, May 2017
- Gruber, J.; Zhou, X. W.; Jones, R. E.
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 121, Issue 19
Relationship of thermal boundary conductance to structure from an analytical model plus molecular dynamics simulations
journal, March 2013
- Zhou, Xiao Wang; Jones, Reese E.; Kimmer, Christopher James
- Physical Review B, Vol. 87, Issue 9
A space–time-ensemble parallel nudged elastic band algorithm for molecular kinetics simulation
journal, February 2008
- Nakano, Aiichiro
- Computer Physics Communications, Vol. 178, Issue 4
Elastic constants and related properties of tetrahedrally bonded BN, AlN, GaN, and InN
journal, June 1996
- Kim, Kwiseon; Lambrecht, Walter R. L.; Segall, Benjamin
- Physical Review B, Vol. 53, Issue 24
Thin film processing by biased target ion beam deposition
journal, January 2000
- Hylton, T. L.; Ciorneiu, B.; Baldwin, D. A.
- IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Vol. 36, Issue 5
Analytical bond-order potential for the Cd-Zn-Te ternary system
journal, December 2012
- Ward, D. K.; Zhou, X. W.; Wong, B. M.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 86, Issue 24
Methods of conjugate gradients for solving linear systems
journal, December 1952
- Hestenes, M. R.; Stiefel, E.
- Journal of Research of the National Bureau of Standards, Vol. 49, Issue 6
Correlations for single-crystal elastic constants of compound semiconductors and their representation in isomechanical groups
journal, August 2007
- Derby, B.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 76, Issue 5