6533b86cfe1ef96bd12c7fb7

RESEARCH PRODUCT

A local chemical potential approach within the variable charge method formalism

Olivier PolitanoA. ElsenerH. Van SwygenhovenPeter M. Derlet

subject

Materials scienceComputationElectric potential energyMinimization problemIonic bondingCondensed Matter PhysicsComputer Science ApplicationsFormalism (philosophy of mathematics)Classical mechanicsMechanics of MaterialsModeling and SimulationGeneral Materials ScienceStatistical physicsOrder of magnitude

description

A new and computationally efficient implementation of the variable charge method of Streitz and Mintmire (1994 Phys. Rev. B 50 11996) is presented. In particular a local chemical potential approach that optimizes the charge on only those atoms expected to be ionic is developed. By doing so, the charge fluctuation problem experienced in regions far from any oxygen is solved, leading to a linear minimization problem of the electrostatic energy. In the dilute oxygen limit, such an approach can lead to at least an order of magnitude saving in computation.

https://doi.org/10.1088/0965-0393/16/2/025006