arXiv subjects

S. L. Chaplot

Publications and source records attributed to S. L. Chaplot.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2022

Solid-like to Liquid-like Behavior of Cu Diffusion in Superionic Cu2X (X=S, Se): An Inelastic Neutron Scattering and Ab-Initio Molecular Dynamics Investigation

Cu2Se and Cu2S are excellent model systems of superionic conductors with large diffusion coefficients that have been reported to exhibit different solid-liquid-like Cu-ion diffusion. In this paper, we clarify the atomic dynamics of these compounds with temperature-dependent ab-initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations and inelastic neutron scattering (INS) experiments. Using the dynamical structure factor and Van-Hove correlation function, we interrogate the jump-time, hopping length distribution and associated diffusion coefficients. In cubic-Cu2Se at 500 K, we find solid-like diffusion with Cu-jump lengths matching well the first-neighbour Cu-Cu distance of ~3 {\AA} in the crystal, and clearly defined optic phonons involving Cu-vibrations. Above 700 K, the jump-length distribution becomes a broad maximum cantered around 4 {\AA}, spanning the first and second neighbour lattice distances, and a concurrent broadening of the Cu-phonon density of states. Further, above 900 K, the Cu-diffusion becomes close to liquid-like, with distributions of Cu-atoms continuously connecting crystal sites, while the vibrational modes involving Cu motions are highly damped, though still not fully over-damped as in a liquid. At low temperatures, the solid-like diffusion is consistent with previous X-ray diffraction and quasielastic neutron scattering experiments, while the higher-temperature observation of the liquid-like diffusion is in agreement with previous AIMD simulations. We also report AIMD simulations in Cu2S in the hexagonal and cubic superionic phases, and observe similar solid and liquid-like diffusion at low- and high-temperatures, respectively. The calculated ionic-conductivity is in fair agreement with reported experimental values.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2020

Phonons and Oxygen Diffusion in Bi2O3 and (Bi0.7Y0.3)2O3

We report investigation of phonons and oxygen diffusion in Bi2O3 and (Bi0.7Y0.3)2O3. The phonon spectra have been measured in Bi2O3 at high temperatures up to 1083 K using inelastic neutron scattering. Ab-initio calculations have been used to compute the individual contributions of the constituent atoms in Bi2O3 and (Bi0.7Y0.3)2O3 to the total phonon density of states. Our computed results indicate that as temperature is increased, there is a complete loss of sharp peak structure in the vibrational density of states. Ab-initio molecular dynamics simulations show that even at 1000 K in {\delta}-phase Bi2O3, Bi-Bi correlations remain ordered in the crystalline lattice while the correlations between O-O show liquid like disordered behavior. In the case of (Bi0.7Y0.3)2O3, the O-O correlations broadened at around 500 K indicating that oxygen conductivity is possible at such low temperatures in (Bi0.7Y0.3)2O3 although the conductivity is much less than that observed in the undoped high temperature {\delta}-phase of Bi2O3. This result is consistent with the calculated diffusion coefficients of oxygen and observation by QENS experiments. Our ab-initio molecular dynamics calculations predict that macroscopic diffusion is attainable in (Bi0.7Y0.3)2O3 at much lower temperatures, which is more suited for technological applications. Our studies elucidate the easy directions of diffusion in {\delta}-Bi2O3 and (Bi0.7Y0.3)2O3.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

Probing of Structural Phase Transitions in Barium Titanate Modified Sodium Niobate using Raman Scattering

Raman Spectroscopic measurements are carried out to investigate the structural phase transitions as a function of composition in modified sodium niobate [(1-x) NaNbO3-xBaTiO3:NNBTx] for x=0.0 to 0.15 at room temperature. The characteristic antiferroelectric modes at around 93.4 and 123.6cm-1alongwith a mode at 155.5 cm-1were found to disappear across the structural phase transition from antiferroelectric orthorhombic phase (Pbcm) to ferroelectric orthorhombic phase (Pmc21) phase for x>0.02. The redistribution of intensities and positions of the Raman lines in bending (150-350 cm-1) and stretching modes (>550cm-1) on increasing the concentration x>0.05 also confirms the occurrence of another phase transition from ferroelectric orthorhombic phase (Pmc21) to another ferroelectric orthorhombic phase (Amm2) phase across x~0.10.The phase transitions as observed from Raman measurements are consistent with previous x-ray diffraction study.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

Dynamics of Li-ion in V2O5 Layers from First-Principles Calculations

The alkali atoms, due to their small sizes and low charge ionic states, are most eligible to intercalate in the structural layers of V2O5. We have applied ab-initio density functional theory to study the dynamics of Li-ion in layers of {\alpha}-V2O5. The calculations are performed for two compositions, namely, Li0.08V2O5 and Li0.16V2O5, and show that there are unstable phonon frequencies. The unstable modes have large amplitude of Li atom along the b-axis of the orthorhombic unit cell indicating that such unstable modes could initiate Li-ion diffusion along b-axis. The ab-initio molecular dynamics simulations are performed up to 25 ps at 1200 K, which reveal one-dimensional diffusion of Li atoms. The diffusion pathways of Li atoms from the simulations seem to follow the eigenvectors of the unstable phonon modes obtained in the intercalated structure.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

Lithium Diffusion in Li2X(X=O, S and Se): Ab-initio Simulations and Neutron Inelastic Scattering Measurements

We have performed ab-initio lattice dynamics and molecular dynamics studies of Li2X (X=O, S and Se) to understand the ionic conduction in these compounds. The inelastic neutron scattering measurements on Li2O have been performed across its superionic transition temperature of about 1200 K. The experimental spectra show significant changes around the superionic transition temperature, which is attributed to large diffusion of lithium as well as its large vibrational amplitude. We have identified a correlation between the chemical pressure (ionic radius of X atom) and the superionic transition temperature. The simulations are able to provide the ionic diffusion pathways in Li2X.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

Phonons and Anisotropic Thermal Expansion Behaviour of NiX (X = S, Se, Te)

Metal Chalcogenides have been known for important technological applications and have attracted continuous interest in their structure, electronic, thermal and transport properties. Here we present first principles calculations of the vibrational and thermodynamic properties of NiX (X = S, Se, Te) compounds along with inelastic neutron scattering measurements of the phonon spectrum in NiSe. The measured phonon spectrum is in very good agreement with the computed result. We also report the measurement of thermal expansion behavior of NiSe using X-ray diffraction from 13 K to 300 K. The change in the hexagonal c lattice parameter in NiSe is considerably greater as compared to a parameter. The ab-initio calculated anisotropic Gr\"uneisen parameters of the different phonon modes in all the chalcogenides along with the elastic constants are used to compute anisotropic thermal expansion behviour, which is found in good agreement with experiments. The displacement pattern of phonons indicate that difference in amplitudes of Ni and X atoms follow the anisotropy of thermal expansion behavior along c- and a-axis.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

Phonon Dispersion Relation, High-Pressure Phase Stability and Thermal Expansion in YVO4

The orthovanadates are useful as host matrices for immobilization of radioactive wastes. The thermodynamic stability of these materials is crucial for their applications in high pressure and temperatures environment. It is necessary to investigate the phonons in the entire Brillouin zone, beyond the zone-centre phonons accessible in previous Raman and infrared experiments. We have carried out extensive neutron inelastic scattering experiments to derive the phonon dispersion relation of YVO4 up to high energy transfer of 65 meV using a single crystal, which are perhaps reported for the first time in any orthovanadate compound. The measured phonon dispersion relation is in good agreement with our first principles density functional theory as well as shell model calculations. The calculated pressure dependence of phonon modes in the zircon and scheelite phases shows unstable modes and violation of the Born stability criteria at high pressure, which may be lead to instability in YVO4 at high pressures. We also calculate large anisotropy in the thermal expansion behavior which arises from difference in anisotropic elasticity and mode Gr\"uneisen parameters.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2018

Effect of Hydration and Ammonization on the Thermal Expansion Behaviour of ZrW2O8: Ab-initio Lattice Dynamical Perspective

The hydration and ammonization of ZrW2O8 is known to lead to positive and negative thermal expansion behaviour respectively. We report ab-initio calculations to understand this anomalous behaviour. We identify the crucial low energy phonon modes involving translations, rotations and distortions of WO4 and ZrO6 polyhedra, which lead to NTE in ZrW2O8 in pure and ammoniated forms; however, the rotation and distortion motions get inhibited on hydration and lead to positive thermal expansion. We demonstrate that the thermal expansion coefficient could be tailored by engineering the phonon dynamics of a material.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2018

Evidence for existence of Functional Monoclinic Phase in Sodium Niobate based Solid Solution by Powder Neutron Diffraction

We have carried out systematic temperature-dependent neutron diffraction measurements in conjunction with dielectric spectroscopy from 6 to 300 K for sodium niobate based compounds (1-x) NaNbO3 -xBaTiO3 (NNBTx). The dielectric constant is measured both as a function of temperature and frequency. It shows an anomaly at different temperatures in cooling and heating cycles and exhibits a large thermal hysteresis of 150 K for the composition x=0.03. The dielectric constant is found to be dispersive in nature and suggests a relaxor ferroelectric behavior. In order to explore structural changes as a function of temperature, we analyzed the powder neutron diffraction data for the composition x=0.03 and 0.05, respectively. Drastic changes are observed in the powder profiles near 30.6{\deg}, 32.1{\deg} and 34.6{\deg} in the diffraction pattern below 200 K during cooling and above 190 K in heating cycles, respectively.The disappearance of superlattice reflection and splitting in main perovskite peaks provide a signature for structural phase transition. We observed stabilization of a monoclinic phase (Cc) at low temperature. This monoclinic phase is believed to provide a flexible polarization rotation and considered to be directly linked to the high performance piezoelectricity in materials. The thermal hysteresis for composition x=0.03 is larger than x=0.05. This suggests that addition of BaTiO3 in NaNbO3 suppresses the thermal hysteresis. It is also observed that the structural phase transition temperature decreases on increasing dopant concentration.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2018

Phonons, Phase Transitions and Thermal Expansion in LiAlO2: An ab-initio Density Functional Study

We have used ab-initio density functional theory technique to understand the phase transitions and structural changes in various high temperature/pressure phases of LiAlO2. The electronic band structure as well as phonon spectra are calculated for various phases as a function of pressure. The phonon entropy used for the calculations of Gibbs free energy is found to play an important role in the phase stability and phase transitions among various phases. A sudden increase in the polyhedral bond lengths (Li/Al-O) signifies the change from the tetrahedral to octahedral geometry at high-pressure phase transitions. The activation energy barrier for the high-pressure phase transitions is calculated. The phonon modes responsible for the phase transition (upon heating) from high pressure phases to ambient pressure phases are identified. Moreover, ab-initio lattice dynamics calculations in the framework of quasi-harmonic approximations are used to calculate the anisotropic thermal expansion behavior of {\gamma}-LiAlO2.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2018

Negative Thermal Expansion Behaviour in MZrF6 (M=Ca, Mg, Sr): Ab-initio Lattice Dynamical Studies

The thermal expansion behavior of metal fluorides can be tuned by choosing appropriate metal cation. We present ab-initio lattice dynamical studies on the metal fluorides (CaZrF6, MgZrF6 and SrZrF6) and identify the anharmonic phonon modes responsible for the negative thermal expansion in these materials. These phonons involve ZrF6 polyhedral rotational motion, which leads to large transverse amplitude of the vibrations of the fluorine atom in the Zr-F-Zr bond. The compounds with larger anisotropy in the thermal amplitude of the fluorine atoms show larger NTE behaviour. This has enabled to understand the large variation in thermal expansion behaviour of these compounds at high temperature. The calculations also predict decrease of the frequency of these anharmonic phonons with increasing temperature.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2018

Phonons and Anomalous Thermal Expansion Behaviour of H2O and D2O ice Ih

In order to identify and quantitatively analyze the anharmonicity of phonons relevant to the anomalous thermal expansion in the Ih phase of ice, we performed neutron inelastic scattering measurements of the phonon spectrum as a function of pressure up to 1 kbar at 225 K in deuterated ice (D2O), and as a function of temperature over 10-225 K at ambient pressure in both H2O and D2O ice. We also performed density functional theory calculations of the lattice dynamics. The anomalous expansion is quantitatively reproduced from the analysis of the neutron data as well as from the ab-initio calculations. Further, the ab-initio calculations are used to visualize the nature of anharmonic phonons across a large part of the Brillouin zone. We find that the negative thermal expansion below 60 K in the hexagonal plane is due to anharmonic librational motion of the hexagonal rings of the ice molecules, and that along the hexagonal axis originates from the transverse vibrations of the hexagonal layers.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2017

Phonons and Anomalous Thermal Expansion Behaviour in Crystalline Solids

Anomalous thermal expansion behaviour of several open frame-work compounds has been extensively investigated using the techniques of inelastic neutron scattering and lattice dynamics. These compounds involve increasing level of structural complexity and flexibility, which leads to increased values of thermal expansion coefficients approaching colossal values. In several compounds, neutron inelastic scattering experiments have produced quantitative estimates of the anharmonicity of phonons over a range of low energies, and thereby explained the observed thermal expansion quantitatively. The anharmonicity is found to be an order of magnitude larger than that in usual materials. Lattice dynamical calculations have correctly predicted the observed anharmonicity in the neutron experiments and revealed the overall nature of phonons involved. In compounds showing negative thermal expansion, the phonons responsible have rather low energies up to 10 meV. In most compounds, the anharmonic phonons span all over the Brillouin zone, while in some cases the specific phonons are limited to certain wave-vectors. The nature of specific phonons responsible for anomalous behavior is found to be different in all these compounds. These phonons generally involve transverse vibrations, librations and internal distortions of the polyhedral units. The paper reviews recent advances in the understanding of anomalous thermal expansion behaviour.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2017

Neutron Diffraction Reveals the Existence of Confined Water in Triangular and Hexagonal Channels of Modified YPO4 at Elevated Temperatures

We provide experimental evidence for confinement of water molecules in the pores of hexagonal structure of YPO4 at elevated temperatures upto 600 K using powder neutron diffraction. In order to avoid the large incoherent scattering from the hydrogen, deuterated samples of doped YPO4:Ce-Eu were used for diffraction measurements. The presence of water molecules in the triangular and hexagonal pores in the hexagonal structure was established by detailed simulation of the diffraction pattern and Rietveld refinement of the experimental data. It was observed that the presence of water leads specifically to suppression of the intensity of a peak around Q = 1.04 {\AA}-1while the intensity of peaks around Q=1.83{\AA}-1 is enhanced in the neutron diffraction pattern. We estimate the number of water molecules as 2.36 (6) per formula units at 300 K and the sizes of the hexagonal and triangular pores as7.2 (1) {\AA} and 4.5 (1) {\AA}, respectively. With increase in temperature, the water content in both the pores decreases above 450 K and vanishes around 600 K. Analysis of the powder diffraction data reveals that the hexagonal structure with the pores persist up to 1273 K, and transforms to another structure at 1323 K. The high temperature phase is not found to have the zircon or the monazite type structure, but a monoclinic structure (space group P2/m) with lattice parameters am= 6.826 (4) {\AA}, bm= 6.645 (4) {\AA}, cm= 10.435 (9){\AA}, and \b{eta}= 107.21 (6){\deg}. The monoclinic structure has about 14 % smaller volume than the hexagonal structure which essentially reflects the collapse of the pores. The phase transition and the change in the volume are also confirmed by x-ray diffraction measurements. The hexagonal to the monoclinic phase transition is found to be irreversible on cooling to room temperature.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2016

Investigating Anomalous Thermal Expansion of Copper Halides by Inelastic Neutron Scattering and Ab-inito Phonon Calculations

We investigate detailed lattice dynamics of copper halides CuX (X=Cl, Br, I) using neutron inelastic scattering measurements and ab-initio calculations aimed at a comparative study of their thermal expansion behavior. We identify the low energy phonons which soften with pressure and are responsible for negative thermal expansion. The eigenvector analysis of these modes suggests that softening of the transverse-acoustic modes would lead to NTE in these compounds. The calculations are in very good agreement with our measurements of phonon spectra and thermal expansion behavior as reported in the literature. Our calculations at high pressure further reveal that large difference in negative thermal expansion behavior in these compounds is associated with the difference of the unit cell volume.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2015

Lattice Dynamics and Thermal Expansion Behavior in Metal Cyanides, MCN (M=Cu, Ag, Au): Neutron Inelastic Scattering and First Principles Calculations

We report measurement of temperature dependence of phonon spectra in quasi one-dimensional metal cyanides MCN (M=Cu, Ag and Au). Ab initio lattice dynamics calculations have been performed to interpret the phonon-spectra as well as to understand the anamolous thermal expansion behavior in these compounds. We bring out the differences in the phonon mode behavior to explain the differences in the thermal expansion behavior among the three compounds. The chain-sliding modes are found to contribute maximum to the negative thermal expansion along c axis in the Cu and Ag compounds, while the same modes contribute to positive thermal expansion in the Au compound. Several low energy transverse modes lead to positive thermal expansion along a and b axis in all the compounds. The calculated elastic constants and Born effective charges are correlated with the difference in nature of bonding among these metal cyanides.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2015

Spin-Phonon Coupling and High Pressure Phase Transitions of RMnO3 (R= Ca and Pr): An Inelastic Neutron Scattering and First Principle Studies

We report inelastic neutron scattering measurements over 7-1251 K in CaMnO3 covering various phase transitions, and over 6-150 K in PrMnO3 covering the magnetic transition. The excitations around 20 meV in CaMnO3 and at 17 meV in PrMnO3 are found to be associated with magnetic origin. In spite of similarity of the structure of the two compounds, the neutron inelastic spectrum of PrMnO3 exhibits broad features at 150 K unlike well-defined peaks in the spectrum of CaMnO3. This might result from the difference in nature of interactions in the two compounds (magnetic and Jahn-Teller distortion). The interpretation and analysis of the observed phonon spectra have been performed using ab-initio phonon calculations. We also discuss the effect of pressure on the structural distortions in the orthorhombic phase of CaMnO3 and PrMnO3. On application of pressure, we found that the variations of Mn-O distances are isotropic for CaMnO3 and highly anisotropic for PrMnO3. The calculated structure as a function of pressure in PrMnO3 shows that suppression of Jahn-Teller distortion and insulator to metal transition occurs simultaneously. Our calculations show that this transition may not be associated with the occurrence of the tetragonal phase above 20 GPa as reported in the literature, since the tetragonal phase is found to be dynamically unstable although it is found to be energetically favored over the orthorhombic phase above 20 GPa. CaMnO3 does not show any phase transition up to 60 GPa.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2015

Phonons and Stability of Infinite-Layer Iron Oxides SrFeO2 and CaFeO2

We present detailed ab-initio lattice dynamical analysis of the Fe-O infinite-layer compounds CaFeO2 and SrFeO2 in various magnetic configurations. These indicate strong spin-phonon coupling in SrFeO2 in contrast to that in case of CaFeO2. Powder neutron inelastic scattering experiments on SrFeO2 have also been performed at temperatures from 5 K to 353 K in the antiferromagnetic phase and analyzed using the ab-initio calculations. These suggest distortion of the ideal infinite planer structure above 300 K. From our ab-initio calculations in SrFeO2 as a function of volume, we suggest that the distortion in SrFeO2 above 300 K is similar to that known in CaFeO2 at ambient conditions. The distortion of the planer structure of CaFeO2 involves doubling of the planer unit cell that may be usually expected to be due to a soft phonon mode at the M-point (1/2 1/2 0). However, our ab-initio calculations show quite unusually that all the M-point (1/2 1/2 0) phonons are stable, but two stable M3+ and M2-modes anharmonically couple with an unstable Bu mode at the zone centre and lead to the cell doubling and the distorted structure. Magnetic exchange interactions in both the compounds have been computed on the basis of the ideal planar structure (P4/mmm space group) and with increasing amplitude of the Bu phonon mode. These reveal that the magnetic exchange interactions reduce significantly with increasing distortion. We have extended the ab-initio phonon calculation to high pressures, which reveal that, above 20 GPa of pressure, the undistorted planer CaFeO2 becomes dynamically stable. We also report computed phonon spectra in SrFeO3 that has a cubic structure, which is useful to understand the role of the difference in geometry of oxygen atoms around the Fe atom with respect to planer SrFeO2.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗