scholarly journals Relativistic Effects on the Equation-of-State of the Light Actinides

2005 ◽  
Vol 893 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Landa ◽  
Per Söderlind

AbstractThe effect of the relativistic spin-orbit (SO)interaction on the bonding in the early actinides has been investigated by means of electronic-structure calculations. Specifically, the equation of state (EOS) for the face-centered cubic (fcc) model systems of these metals has been calculated from the first-principles density-functional (DFT) theory. Traditionally, the SO interaction in electronic-structure methods is implemented as a perturbation to the Hamiltonian that is solved for basis functions that explicitly do not depend on SO coupling. Here this approximation is shown to compare well with the fully relativistic Dirac treatment. It is further shown that SO coupling has a gradually increasing effect on the EOS as one proceeds through the actinides and the effect is diminished as density increases.

2005 ◽  
Vol 893 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sa Li ◽  
Rajeev Ahuja ◽  
Borje Johansson

AbstractWe have studied the crystal structure of the AmCm binary alloy under high pressure by means of first-principles self-consistent total-energy calculations using the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) for the density functional theory (DFT). The virtual crystal approximation (VCA) is used for the description of the alloy system. In the present study, we investigated the double hexagonal (P63/mmc) structure, the face centered cubic (Fm3m) structure, the face-centered orthorhombic (Fddd) structure and the primitive orthorhombic (Pnma) structure for the AmCm alloy. Antiferromagnetic calculations have been compared with ferromagnetic calculations for all these phases. Our results are in general good agreement with recent experiment performed by Lindbaum et al. [J. Phys.: Condens. Matter. 15, S2297 (2003)].


2005 ◽  
Vol 893 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin T. Moore ◽  
Per Söderlind ◽  
Adam J. Schwartz ◽  
David Laughlin

AbstractUsing first-principles density-functional theory calculations, we show that the anomalously large anisotropy of δ-plutonium is a consequence of greatly varying bond-strengths between the 12 nearest neighbors. Employing the calculated bond strengths, we expand the tenants of classical crystallography by incorporating anisotropy of chemical bonds, which yields a structure with the monoclinic space group Cm for δ-plutonium rather than face-centered cubic Fm3m. The reduced space group for δ-plutonium enlightens why the ground state of the metal is monoclinic, why distortions of the metal are viable, and has considerable implications for the behavior of the material as it ages. These results illustrate how an expansion of classical crystallography that accounts for anisotropic electronic structure can explain complicated materials in a novel way.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1683 ◽  
Author(s):  
Per Söderlind ◽  
Alex Landa

ABSTRACTThe density-functional-theory model for plutonium metal is shown to be consistent with recent magnetic measurements that suggest anti-ferromagnetism in Pu-Ga alloys at low temperatures. The theoretical model predicts a stabilization of the face-centered-cubic (fcc, δ) form of plutonium in an anti-ferromagnetic configuration when alloyed with gallium. The ordered magnetic phase occurs because Ga removes the mechanical instability that exists for unalloyed δ-Pu. The cause of the Ga-induced stabilization is a combination of a lowering of the band (kinetic) and electrostatic (Coulomb) energies for the cubic relative to the tetragonal phase.


Author(s):  
F. Monchoux ◽  
A. Rocher ◽  
J.L. Martin

Interphase sliding is an important phenomenon of high temperature plasticity. In order to study the microstructural changes associated with it, as well as its influence on the strain rate dependence on stress and temperature, plane boundaries were obtained by welding together two polycrystals of Cu-Zn alloys having the face centered cubic and body centered cubic structures respectively following the procedure described in (1). These specimens were then deformed in shear along the interface on a creep machine (2) at the same temperature as that of the diffusion treatment so as to avoid any precipitation. The present paper reports observations by conventional and high voltage electron microscopy of the microstructure of both phases, in the vicinity of the phase boundary, after different creep tests corresponding to various deformation conditions.Foils were cut by spark machining out of the bulk samples, 0.2 mm thick. They were then electropolished down to 0.1 mm, after which a hole with thin edges was made in an area including the boundary


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnès Dewaele ◽  
Angelika D. Rosa ◽  
Nicolas Guignot ◽  
Denis Andrault ◽  
João Elias F. S. Rodrigues ◽  
...  

AbstractThe compression of argon is measured between 10 K and 296 K up to 20 GPa and and up to 114 GPa at 296 K in diamond anvil cells. Three samples conditioning are used: (1) single crystal sample directly compressed between the anvils, (2) powder sample directly compressed between the anvils, (3) single crystal sample compressed in a pressure medium. A partial transformation of the face-centered cubic (fcc) phase to a hexagonal close-packed (hcp) structure is observed above 4.2–13 GPa. Hcp phase forms through stacking faults in fcc-Ar and its amount depends on pressurizing conditions and starting fcc-Ar microstructure. The quasi-hydrostatic equation of state of the fcc phase is well described by a quasi-harmonic Mie–Grüneisen–Debye formalism, with the following 0 K parameters for Rydberg-Vinet equation: $$V_0$$ V 0 = 38.0 Å$$^3$$ 3 /at, $$K_0$$ K 0 = 2.65 GPa, $$K'_0$$ K 0 ′ = 7.423. Under the current experimental conditions, non-hydrostaticity affects measured P–V points mostly at moderate pressure ($$\le$$ ≤ 20 GPa).


2014 ◽  
Vol 895 ◽  
pp. 420-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sathya Sheela Subramanian ◽  
Baskaran Natesan

Structural optimization, magnetic ground state and electronic structure calculations of tetragonal PbMnO3have been carried out using local density approximation (LDA) implementations of density functional theory (DFT). Structural optimizations were done on tetragonal P4mm (non-centrosymmetric) and P4/mmm (centrosymmetric) structures using experimental lattice parameters and our results indicate that P4mm is more stable than P4/mmm. In order to determine the stable magnetic ground state of PbMnO3, total energies for different magnetic configurations such as nonmagnetic (NM), ferromagnetic (FM) and antiferromagnetic (AFM) were computed for both P4mm and P4/mmm structures. The total energy results reveal that the FM non-centrosymmetric structure is found to be the most stable magnetic ground state. The electronic band structure, density of states (DOS) and the electron localization function (ELF) were calculated for the stable FM structure. ELF revealed the distorted non-centrosymmetric structure. The band structure and DOS for the majority spins of FM PbMnO3showed no band gap at the Fermi level. However, a gap opens up at the Fermi level in minority spin channel suggesting that it could be a half-metal and a potential spintronic candidate.


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