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Main Authors: Shen, Jimmy-Xuan, Voss, Lars F., Varley, Joel Basile
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.05689
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author Shen, Jimmy-Xuan
Voss, Lars F.
Varley, Joel Basile
author_facet Shen, Jimmy-Xuan
Voss, Lars F.
Varley, Joel Basile
contents Point defects have a strong influence on the physical properties of materials, often dominating the electronic and optical behavior in semiconductors and insulators. The simulation and analysis of point defects is therefore crucial for understanding the growth and operation of materials especially for optoelectronics applications. In this work, we present a general-purpose Python framework for the analysis of point defects in crystalline materials, as well as a generalized workflow for their treatment with high-throughput simulations. The distinguishing feature of our approach is an emphasis on a unique, unitcell, structure-only, definition of point defects which decouples the defect definition and the specific supercell representation used to simulate the defect. This allows the results of first-principles calculations to be aggregated into a database without extensive provenance information and is a crucial step in building a persistent database of point defects that can grow over time, a key component towards realizing the idea of a ``defect genome' that can yield more complex relationships governing the behavior of defects in materials. We demonstrate several examples of the approach for three technologically relevant materials and highlight current pitfalls that must be considered when employing these methodologies, as well as their potential solutions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_05689
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Simulating Charged Defects at Database Scale
Shen, Jimmy-Xuan
Voss, Lars F.
Varley, Joel Basile
Materials Science
Point defects have a strong influence on the physical properties of materials, often dominating the electronic and optical behavior in semiconductors and insulators. The simulation and analysis of point defects is therefore crucial for understanding the growth and operation of materials especially for optoelectronics applications. In this work, we present a general-purpose Python framework for the analysis of point defects in crystalline materials, as well as a generalized workflow for their treatment with high-throughput simulations. The distinguishing feature of our approach is an emphasis on a unique, unitcell, structure-only, definition of point defects which decouples the defect definition and the specific supercell representation used to simulate the defect. This allows the results of first-principles calculations to be aggregated into a database without extensive provenance information and is a crucial step in building a persistent database of point defects that can grow over time, a key component towards realizing the idea of a ``defect genome' that can yield more complex relationships governing the behavior of defects in materials. We demonstrate several examples of the approach for three technologically relevant materials and highlight current pitfalls that must be considered when employing these methodologies, as well as their potential solutions.
title Simulating Charged Defects at Database Scale
topic Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.05689