Author Topic: Stability analysis  (Read 3476 times)

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Offline Palak

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Stability analysis
« on: May 12, 2013, 14:16 »
Respected Sir,
In my calculation of 1-D Si nanowire in its different shapes such as linear, ladder, square, dumbbell, hexagonal etc. The zigzag nanowire of Si attains the lowest total energy amongst all and treated as the most stable one? So, does it imply that zigzag,ladder and square nanowires of Si are more stable than bulk Si? Can you please provide me the formula for calculating the cohesive energy of bulk structures using total energy of bulk.

The fact that zigzag nanowires of Si possess the highest binding energy which seems to suggest that it has the largest numbers of nearest neighbor (nn) atoms, among all the nanowires considered. But the fact is that it has only two atoms,whereas square and dumbbell nanowire structures look more closely packed in my case. There is not any kind of rearrangement occurring after relaxation, resulting in more number of nn in zigzag NWs compared to rest?
How on the basis of lowest total enery and highest binding energy I will strictly define the stability of Si zigzag as most stable structure? Without the discussion of nn (   As the number of nearest neighbours increase, the binding energy increase).

With Highest Regards!

Offline kstokbro

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Re: Stability analysis
« Reply #1 on: May 13, 2013, 07:10 »
To get the cohesive energy you must subtract the bulk energy, i.e.
E_wire - n * E_bulk ,
where E_bulk is the bulk energy/atom
n the number of atoms
and E_wire the the total energy of the wire

Offline Palak

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Re: Stability analysis
« Reply #2 on: May 13, 2013, 08:01 »
Rerspected Sir,
I think there was some confusion...
My query is How to calculate the cohesive energy of bulk solids ?
and second query is how to defend the stability of nanostructures on the basis of total energy and binding energy? Without discussing their nearest neighbouring atoms...
Please reply at your earliest..

With Highest Regards!

Offline zh

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Re: Stability analysis
« Reply #3 on: May 13, 2013, 09:44 »
As shown in the textbook, the cohesive energy of a bulk is defined as
E_coh=  E_tot (bulk) - \sum_i  n_i * E_tot (atom_i),
where n_i is the number of atom  specie i in the bulk, i runs over the number of species of atoms in bulk.
So, you have to calculate the total energies of  bulk and  atom of the i-th specie.


To discuss the stability of different systems by using the cohesive energy, it may be more meaningful to use the E_coh per atom. Actually, there are so many papers on such topic, e.g., please refer
Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 196807 (2004)

Offline Sarang

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Re: Stability analysis
« Reply #4 on: May 27, 2013, 05:40 »
Hi,

We can calculate the E_tot (bulk) by selecting command thru "Analysis" tab on script generator. I was wondering how to get total energy of specific species "i" in the system i.e. the term E_tot(atom_i). Any help would be great.

Thanks,
Sarang

Offline zh

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Re: Stability analysis
« Reply #5 on: May 28, 2013, 01:05 »
Hi,
 I was wondering how to get total energy of specific species "i" in the system i.e. the term E_tot(atom_i).

It is obtained by a calculation separately for the specific atom i. In this case, the atom i is treated as a molecular configuration.

Offline Sarang

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Re: Stability analysis
« Reply #6 on: May 28, 2013, 01:27 »
Thanks a bunch for the same.

So, do you mean we should run a separate calculation by doing any change in system ? Because atoms in bulk would anyway be bonded with other atoms, so how would you isolate the atoms for the purpose of energy calculation.

For example, I am running a simulation in a system with doping atoms to it. So, how would I calculate energies of the specific dopant atoms, separated from bulk. Could you suggest.

Best,
Sarang

Offline zh

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Re: Stability analysis
« Reply #7 on: May 29, 2013, 11:59 »
Thanks a bunch for the same.

So, do you mean we should run a separate calculation by doing any change in system ? Because atoms in bulk would anyway be bonded with other atoms, so how would you isolate the atoms for the purpose of energy calculation.

For example, I am running a simulation in a system with doping atoms to it. So, how would I calculate energies of the specific dopant atoms, separated from bulk. Could you suggest.

Best,
Sarang

Of course, you have to change the system. For example, to obtain the total energy of a silicon atom, you can do the calculation of a molecule configuration or a bulk configuration with a large lattice constant (e.g., 15 angstrom or even larger). In both configurations, only one silicon atom is put there.   

Offline Sarang

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Re: Stability analysis
« Reply #8 on: May 29, 2013, 17:37 »
Oh fine.. Thanks a lot for advice.. I will try out the same way.

Best,
Sarang