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The development of tandem photovoltaics and photoelectrochemical solar cells requires new absorber materials with band gaps in the range of ~1.5-2.3 eV, for use in the top cell paired with a narrower-gap bottom cell. An outstanding challenge is finding materials with suitable optoelectronic and defect properties, good operational stability, and synthesis conditions that preserve underlying device layers. This study demonstrates the Zintl phosphide compound CaZn$_2$P$_2$ as a compelling candidate semiconductor for these applications. We prepare phase pure, 500 nm-thick CaZn$_2$P$_2$ thin films using a scalable reactive sputter deposition process at growth temperatures as low as 100 {\deg}C, which is desirable for device integration. UV-vis spectroscopy shows that CaZn$_2$P$_2$ films exhibit an optical absorptivity of ~10$^4$ cm$^-$$^1$ at ~1.95 eV direct band gap. Room-temperature photoluminescence (PL) measurements show near-band-edge optical emission, and time-resolved microwave conductivity (TRMC) measurements indicate a photoexcited carrier lifetime of ~30 ns. CaZn$_2$P$_2$ is highly stable in both ambient conditions and moisture, as evidenced by PL and TRMC measurements. Experimental data are supported by first-principles calculations, which indicate the absence of low-formation-energy, deep intrinsic defects. Overall, our study should motivate future work integrating this potential top cell absorber material into tandem solar cells.

Lead-free halide double perovskites provide a promising solution for the long-standing issues of lead-containing halide perovskites, i.e., the toxicity of Pb and the low stability under ambient conditions and high-intensity illumination. Their light-to-electricity or thermal-to-electricity conversion is strongly determined by the dynamics of the corresponding lattice vibrations. Here, we present the measurement of lattice dynamics in a prototypical lead-free halide double perovskite, i.e., Cs2NaInCl6. Our quantitative measurements and first-principles calculations show that the scatterings among lattice vibrations at room temperature are at the timescale of ~ 1 ps, which stems from the extraordinarily strong anharmonicity in Cs2NaInCl6. We further quantitatively characterize the degree of anharmonicity of all the ions in the single Cs2NaInCl6 crystal, and demonstrate that this strong anharmonicity is synergistically contributed by the bond hierarchy, the tilting of the NaCl6 and InCl6 octahedral units, and the rattling of Cs+ ions. Consequently, the crystalline Cs2NaInCl6 possesses an ultralow thermal conductivity of ~0.43 W/mK at room temperature, and a weak temperature dependence of T-0.41. Our findings here uncovered the underlying mechanisms behind the dynamics of lattice vibrations in double perovskites, which could largely benefit the design of optoelectronics and thermoelectrics based on halide double perovskites.

Fundamentally understanding the lattice dynamics and microscopic mechanisms of thermal transport in cubic hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites remains elusive, primarily due to their strong anharmonicity and frequent phase transitions. In this work, we comprehensively investigate the thermal transport behavior in cubic hybrid perovskite FAPbI3, integrating first principles-based anharmonic lattice dynamics with a linearized Wigner transport formula. The Temperature Dependent Effective Potential (TDEP) technique allows us to stabilize the negative soft modes, primarily dominated by organic cations, at finite temperatures in cubic FAPbI3. We then predict an ultra-low thermal conductivity of ~0.63 Wm^(-1) K^(-1) in cubic FAPbI3 at 300 K, with a temperature dependence of T^(-0.740), suggesting a good crystalline nature of phonon transport. Notably, the ultra-low thermal conductivity in cubic FAPbI3 is primarily attributed to the [PbI3]1- units, challenging the conventional focus on organic FA+ cations. This shift in focus is due to the presence of Pb(s)-I(p) anti-bonding sates within the [PbI3]1- units. Furthermore, thermal transport in cubic FAPbI3 is predominantly governed by the particle-like phonon propagation channel across the entire temperature range of 300-500 K, a result of diminished suppression of low-frequency phonons by FA+ cations and large inter-branch spacings. Finally, our findings underscore that the anharmonic force constants are highly temperature-sensitive, leading to underestimations of thermal conductivity when relying on 0-K anharmonic force constants. Our study not only elucidates the microscopic mechanisms of thermal transport in cubic FAPbI3 but also provides a crucial framework for the discovery, design, and understanding of hybrid organic-inorganic compounds with ultra-low thermal conductivity.

The chalcogenide perovskite BaZrS$_3$ has attracted much attention as a promising solar absorber for thin-film photovoltaics. Here, we use first-principles calculations to evaluate its carrier transport and defect properties. We find that BaZrS$_3$ has a phonon-limited electron mobility of 37 cm$^2$/Vs comparable to that in halide perovskites but lower hole mobility of 11 cm$^2$/Vs. The defect computations indicate that BaZrS$_3$ is intrinsically n-type due to shallow sulfur vacancies, but that strong compensation by sulfur vacancies will prevent attempts to make it p-type. We also establish that BaZrS$_3$ is a defect-tolerant absorber with few low formation energy, deep intrinsic defects. Among the deep defects, sulfur interstitials are the strongest nonradiative recombination centers which in sulfur-rich conditions would limit the carrier lifetime to 10 ns. Our work highlights the material's intrinsic limitations in carrier mobility and suggests suppressing the formation of sulfur interstitials to reach long carrier lifetime.

The silicon T centre's narrow, telecommunications-band optical emission, long spin coherence, and direct photonic integration have spurred interest in this emitter as a spin-photon interface for distributed quantum computing and networking. However, key parameters of the T centre's spin-selective optical transitions remain undetermined or ambiguous in literature. In this paper we present a Hamiltonian of the T centre TX state and determine key parameters of the optical transition from T$_0$ to TX$_0$ from a combined analysis of published results, density functional theory, and new spectroscopy. We resolve ambiguous values of the internal defect potential in the literature, and we present the first measurements of electrically tuned T centre emission. As a result, we provide a model of the T centre's optical and spin properties under strain, electric, and magnetic fields that can be utilized for realizing quantum technologies., Comment: 9 pages and 6 figures in the main manuscript. 10 pages and 6 figures in the supplementary information

Quantum technologies would benefit from the development of high performance quantum defects acting as single-photon emitters or spin-photon interface. Finding such a quantum defect in silicon is especially appealing in view of its favorable spin bath and high processability. While some color centers in silicon have been emerging in quantum applications, there is still a need to search and develop new high performance quantum emitters. Searching a high-throughput computational database of more than 22,000 charged complex defects in silicon, we identify a series of defects formed by a group III element combined with carbon ((A-C)$\rm _{Si}$ with A=B,Al,Ga,In,Tl) and substituting on a silicon site. These defects are analogous structurally, electronically and chemically to the well-known T center in silicon ((C-C-H)$\rm_{Si}$) and their optical properties are mainly driven by an unpaired electron in a carbon $p$ orbital. They all emit in the telecom and some of these color centers show improved properties compared to the T center in terms of computed radiative lifetime or emission efficiency. We also show that the synthesis of hydrogenated T center-like defects followed by a dehydrogenation annealing step could be an efficient way of synthesis. All the T center-like defects show a higher symmetry than the T center making them easier to align with magnetic fields. Our work motivates further studies on the synthesis and control of this new family of quantum defects, and also demonstrates the use of high-throughput computational screening to detect new complex quantum defects.

Calcium oxide (CaO) is a promising host for quantum defects because of its ultrawide band gap and potential for long spin coherence times. Using hybrid functional calculations, we investigate the intrinsic point defects and how they limit Fermi-level positions and doping in CaO. Our results reveal calcium and oxygen vacancies to be the most common intrinsic defects, acting as compensating acceptors and donors, respectively. Oxygen interstitials are also prevailing under O-rich conditions and act as compensating donors. Due to compensation by these defects, O-poor conditions are required to dope CaO n-type, while O-rich conditions are required for p-type doping. We find that, at room temperature, intrinsic CaO can only achieve Fermi-level positions between 1.76 eV above the valence-band maximum (VBM) and 1.73 eV below the conduction-band minimum (CBM). If suitable shallow dopants can be found, the allowed range of Fermi levels would increase to between VBM+0.53 eV and CBM-0.27 eV and is set by the compensating intrinsic defects. Additionally, we study hydrogen impurities, and show that hydrogen will limit p-type doping but can also act as shallow donor when substituting oxygen ($\mathrm{H}_\mathrm{O}$ defects).

Point defects in semiconductors are attractive candidates for quantum information science applications owing to their ability to act as spin-photon interface or single-photon emitters. However, the coupling between the change of dipole moment upon electronic excitation and stray electric fields in the vicinity of the defect, an effect known as Stark shift, can cause significant spectral diffusion in the emitted photons. In this work, using first principles computations, we revisit the methodology to compute the Stark shift of point defects up to the second order. The approach consists of applying an electric field on a defect in a slab and monitoring the changes in the computed zero-phonon line (i.e., difference in energy between the ground and excited state) obtained from constraining the orbital occupations (constrained-DFT). We study the Stark shift of the negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond using this slab approach. We discuss and compare two approaches to ensure a negatively charged defect in a slab and we show that converged values of the Stark shift measured by the change in dipole moment between the ground and excited states ($\Delta \mu$) can be obtained. We obtain a Stark shift of $\Delta \mu$=2.68D using the semi-local GGA-PBE functional and of $\Delta \mu$=2.23D using the HSE hybrid-functional. The results of the slab computations are significantly different than those obtained with Modern Theory of Polarization ($\Delta \mu$=4.34D for GGA-PBE) indicating a potential issue with the combination of constrained-DFT and Modern Theory of Polarization, at least in certain codes., Comment: 29 pages, 11 figures

Two-dimensional (2D) Janus Transition Metal Dichalcogenides (TMDs) have attracted much interest due to their exciting quantum properties arising from their unique two-faced structure, broken-mirror symmetry, and consequent colossal polarisation field within the monolayer. While efforts have been made to achieve high-quality Janus monolayers, the existing methods rely on highly energetic processes that introduce unwanted grain-boundary and point defects with still unexplored effects on the material's structural and excitonic properties Through High-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy (HRSTEM), density functional theory (DFT), and optical spectroscopy measurements; this work introduces the most encountered and energetically stable point defects. It establishes their impact on the material's optical properties. HRSTEM studies show that the most energetically stable point defects are single (Vs and Vse) and double chalcogen vacancy (Vs-Vse), interstitial defects (Mi), and metal impurities (MW) and establish their structural characteristics. DFT further establishes their formation energies and related localized bands within the forbidden band. Cryogenic excitonic studies on h-BN-encapsulated Janus monolayers offer a clear correlation between these structural defects and observed emission features, which closely align with the results of the theory. The overall results introduce the defect genome of Janus TMDs as an essential guideline for assessing their structural quality and device properties.

We demonstrate the opportunities of first-principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations for the development of new metallurgical refining processes. As such, a methodology based on DFT calculations is developed to discover new pyrometallurgical refining processes that use the addition of a third element to remove an impurity from a molten host material. As a case study, this methodology is applied to the refining of lead. The proposed method predicts the existing refining routes as well as alternative processes. The most interesting candidate for the removal of arsenic from lead is experimentally verified, which confirms the suitability of the remover element. The method is therefore considered as a useful approach to speed up the discovery of new pyrometallurgical refining processes, as it provides an ordered set of interesting candidate remover elements

A high-performance p-type transparent conductor (TC) does not yet exist, but could lead to advances in a wide range of optoelectronic applications and enable new architectures for, e.g., next-generation photovoltaic (PV) devices. High-throughput computational material screenings have been a promising approach to filter databases and identify new p-type TC candidates, and some of these predictions have been experimentally validated. However, most of these predicted candidates do not have experimentally-achieved properties on par with n-type TCs used in solar cells, and therefore have not yet been used in commercial devices. Thus, there is still a significant divide between transforming predictions into results that are actually achievable in the lab, and an even greater lag in scaling predicted materials into functional devices. In this perspective, we outline some of the major disconnects in this materials discovery process -- from scaling computational predictions into synthesizable crystals and thin films in the laboratory, to scaling lab-grown films into real-world solar devices -- and share insights to inform future strategies for TC discovery and design.

Photoluminescence (PL) spectra are a versatile tool for exploring the electronic and optical properties of quantum defect systems. In this work, we investigate the PL spectra of the G center in silicon by combining first-principles computations with a machine-learned compressive-sensing technique and experiment. We show that the compressive-sensing technique provides a speed up of approximately 20 times compared with the finite-displacement method with similar numerical accuracy. We compare theory and experiment and show good agreement for the historically proposed configuration B of the G center. In particular, we attribute the experimentally observed E-line of the G center to a local vibration mode mainly involving two substitutional C atoms and one interstitial Si atom. Our theoretical results also well reproduce and explain the experimental E-line energy shifts originating from the carbon isotopic effect. In addition, our results demonstrate that some highly anharmonic modes that are apparent in computed spectra could be absent experimentally because of their short lifetime. Our work not only provides a deeper understanding of the G-center defect but also paves the way to accelerate the calculation of PL spectra for color centers.

High entropy alloys (HEAs) have attracted substantial interest in recent years. Thus far, most investigations have focused on their applications as structural materials rather than functional materials. In this paper, we show that FeMnNiAlCr HEAs can potentially be applied as both a structural and functional material for high-efficiency concentrated solar thermal power (CSP) systems working at >700 degrees C. The HEA itself would be used in high-temperature tubing to carry working fluids, while its surface oxide would act as a high-efficiency solar thermal absorber. These HEAs have demonstrated yield strengths 2-3x greater than that of stainless steel at 700 degrees C and a creep lifetime >800 h at 700 degrees C under a typical CSP tubing mechanical load of 35 MPa. Their Mn-rich surface oxides maintain a high optical-to-thermal conversion efficiency of ~87% under 1000x solar concentration for 20 simulated day-night thermal cycles between 750 degrees C and environmental temperature. These HEAs have also sustained immersion in unpurified bromide molten salts for 14 days at 750{\deg}C with <2% weight loss, in contrast to 70% weight loss from a 316 stainless steel reference. The simultaneous achievement of promising mechanical, optical, and thermochemical properties in this FeMnNiAlCr system opens the door to new applications of HEAs in solar energy harvesting.

We investigate the native point defects in the long-wavelength infrared (LWIR) detector material Hg$_{0.75}$Cd$_{0.25}$Te using a dielectric-dependent hybrid density functional combined with spin-orbit coupling. Characterizing these point defects is essential as they are responsible for intrinsic doping and nonradiative recombination centers in the detector material. The dielectric-dependent hybrid functional allows for an accurate description of the band gap ($E_g$) for Hg$_{1-x}$Cd$_{x}$Te (MCT) over the entire compositional range, a level of accuracy challenging with standard hybrid functionals. Our comprehensive examination of the native point defects confirms that cation vacancies $V_\text{Hg(Cd)}$ are the primary sources of $p$-type conductivity in the LWIR material given their low defect formation energies and the presence of a shallow acceptor level ($-$/0) near the valence-band maximum (VBM). In addition to the shallow acceptor level, the cation vacancies exhibit a deep charge transition level (2$-$/$-$) situated near the midgap, characteristic of nonradiative recombination centers. Our results indicate that Hg interstitial could also be a deep center in the LWIR MCT through a metastable configuration under the Hg-rich growth conditions. While an isolated Te antisite does not show deep levels, the formation of $V_\text{Hg}$-Te$_\text{Hg}$ defect complex introduces a deep acceptor level within the band gap., Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures

Thin-film photovoltaics offers a path to significantly decarbonize our energy production. Unfortunately, current materials commercialized or under development as thin-film solar cell absorbers are far from optimal as they show either low power conversion efficiency or issues with earth-abundance and stability. Entirely new and disruptive materials platforms are rarely discovered as the search for new solar absorbers is traditionally slow and serendipitous. Here, we use first principles high-throughput screening to accelerate this process. We identify new solar absorbers among known inorganic compounds using considerations on band gap, carrier transport, optical absorption but also on intrinsic defects which can strongly limit the carrier lifetime and ultimately the solar cell efficiency. Screening about 40,000 materials, we discover the Zintl-phosphide BaCd$_{2}$P$_{2}$ as a potential high-efficiency solar absorber. Follow-up experimental work confirms the predicted promises of BaCd$_{2}$P$_{2}$ highlighting an optimal band gap for visible absorption, bright photoluminescence, and long carrier lifetime of up to 30 ns even for unoptimized powder samples. Importantly, BaCd$_{2}$P$_{2}$ does not contain any critical elements and is highly stable in air and water. Our work opens an avenue for a new family of stable, earth-abundant, high-performance Zintl-based solar absorbers. It also demonstrates how recent advances in first principles computation can accelerate the search of photovoltaic materials by combining high-throughput screening with experiment.

Fundamental understanding of thermal transport in compounds with ultra-low thermal conductivity remains challenging, primarily due to the limitations of conventional lattice dynamics and heat transport models. In this study, we investigate the thermal transport in quasi-one-dimensional (1D) copper halide CsCu2I3 by employing a combination of first principles-based self-consistent phonon calculations and a dual-channel thermal transport model. Our results show that the 0-K unstable soft modes, primarily dominated by Cs and I atoms in CsCu2I3, can be an-harmonically stabilized at ~ 75 K. Furthermore, we predict an ultra-low thermal conductivity of 0.362 Wm^(-1) K^(-1) along the chain axis and 0.201 Wm^(-1) K^(-1) along cross chain direction in CsCu2I3 at 300 K. Importantly, we find that an unexpected anomalous trend of increasing cross-chain thermal conductivity with increasing temperature for CsCu2I3, following a temperature dependence of ~T 0.106, which is atypical for a single crystal and classified as an abnormal glass-like behavior. The peculiar temperature-dependent behavior of thermal conductivity is elucidated by the dominant wave-like tunnelling of phonons in thermal transport of CsCu2I3 along cross-chain direction. In contrast, particle-like phonon propagation primarily contributes to the chain-axis thermal conductivity across the entire temperature range of 300-700 K. The sharp difference in the dominant thermal transport channels between the two crystallographic directions can be attributed to the unique chain-like quasi-1D structure of CsCu2I3. Our study not only illustrates the microscopic mechanisms of thermal transport in CsCu2I3 but also paves the way for searching for and designing materials with ultra-low thermal conductivity.

Point defects in two-dimensional materials are of key interest for quantum information science. However, the space of possible defects is immense, making the identification of high-performance quantum defects extremely challenging. Here, we perform high-throughput (HT) first-principles computational screening to search for promising quantum defects within WS$_2$, which present localized levels in the band gap that can lead to bright optical transitions in the visible or telecom regime. Our computed database spans more than 700 charged defects formed through substitution on the tungsten or sulfur site. We found that sulfur substitutions enable the most promising quantum defects. We computationally identify the neutral cobalt substitution to sulfur (Co$_{\rm S}^{0}$) as very promising and fabricate it with scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). The Co$_{\rm S}^{0}$ electronic structure measured by STM agrees with first principles and showcases an attractive new quantum defect. Our work shows how HT computational screening and novel defect synthesis routes can be combined to design new quantum defects., Comment: 38 pages, 19 figures

Zinc phosphide (Zn3P2) has had a long history of scientific interest largely because of its potential for earth-abundant photovoltaics. To realize high-efficiency Zn3P2 solar cells, it is critical to understand and control point defects in this material. Using hybrid functional calculations, we assess the energetics and electronic behavior of intrinsic point defects and hydrogen impurities in Zn3P2. All intrinsic defects are found to act as compensating centers in p-type Zn3P2 and have deep levels in the band gap, except for zinc vacancies which are shallow acceptors and can act as a source of doping. Our work highlights that zinc vacancies rather than phosphorus interstitials are likely to be the main source of p-type doping in as-grown Zn3P2. We also show that Zn-poor and P-rich growth conditions, which are usually used for enhancing p-type conductivity of Zn3P2, will facilitate the formation of certain deep-level defects (P_Zn and P_i) which might be detrimental to solar cell efficiency. For hydrogen impurities, which are frequently present in the growth environment of Zn3P2, we study interstitial hydrogen and hydrogen complexes with vacancies. The results suggest small but beneficial effects of hydrogen on the electrical properties of Zn3P2.

Optically active quantum defects play an important role in quantum sensing, computing, and communication. The electronic structure and the single-particle energy levels of these quantum defects in the semiconducting host have been used to understand their opto-electronic properties. Optical excitations that are central for their initialization and readout are linked to transitions between occupied and unoccupied single-particle states. It is commonly assumed that only quantum defects introducing levels well within the band gap and far from the band edges are of interest for quantum technologies as they mimic an isolated atom embedded in the host. In this perspective, we contradict this common assumption and show that optically active defects with energy levels close to the band edges can display similar properties. We highlight quantum defects that are excited through transitions to or from a band-like level (bound exciton), such as the T center and Se$\rm _{Si}^+$ in silicon. We also present how defects such as the silicon divacancy in diamond can involve transitions between localized levels that are above the conduction band or below the valence band. Loosening the commonly assumed requirement on the electronic structure of quantum defects offers opportunities in quantum defects design and discovery, especially in smaller band gap hosts such as silicon. We discuss the challenges in terms of operating temperature for photoluminescence or radiative lifetime in this regime. We also highlight how these alternative type of defects bring their own needs in terms of theoretical developments and fundamental understanding. This perspective clarifies the electronic structure requirement for quantum defects and will facilitate the identification and design of new color centers for quantum applications especially driven by first principles computations.

In this work, we investigate the microscopic mechanisms of anharmonic lattice dynamics and thermal transport in lead-free halide double perovskite Cs2AgBiBr6 from first principles. We combine self-consistent phonon calculations with bubble diagram correction and a unified theory of lattice thermal transport that considers both the particle-like phonon propagation and wave-like tunnelling of phonons. An ultra-low thermal conductivity at room temperature (~0.21 Wm-1K-1) is predicted with weak temperature dependence(~T-0.45), in sharp contrast to the conventional ~T-1 dependence. Particularly, the vibrational properties of Cs2AgBiBr6 are featured by strong anharmonicity and wave-like tunnelling of phonons. Anharmonic phonon renormalization from both the cubic and quartic anharmonicities are found essential in precisely predicting the phase transition temperature in Cs2AgBiBr6 while the negative phonon energy shifts induced by cubic anharmonicity has a significant influence on particle-like phonon propagation. Further, the contribution of the wave-like tunnelling to the total thermal conductivity surpasses that of the particle-like propagation above around 340 K, indicating the breakdown of the phonon gas picture conventionally used in the Peierls-Boltzmann Transport Equation. Importantly, further including four-phonon scatterings is required in achieving the dominance of wave-like tunnelling, as compared to the dominant particle-like propagation channel when considering only three-phonon scatterings. Our work highlights the importance of lattice anharmonicity and wave-like tunnelling of phonons in the thermal transport in lead-free halide double perovskites.

Density functional theory calculations are carried out to study the electronic and topological properties of $M$P$X_3$ ($M$ = Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, and $X$ = S, Se) monolayers in the ferromagnetic (FM) metastable magnetic state. We find that FM MnPSe$_3$ monolayers host topological semimetal signatures that are gapped out when spin-orbit coupling (SOC) is included. These findings are supported by explicit calculations of the Berry curvature and the Chern number. The choice of the Hubbard-$U$ parameter to describe the $d$-electrons is thoroughly discussed, as well as the influence of using a hybrid-functional approach. The presence of band inversions and the associated topological features are found to be formalism-dependent. Nevertheless, routes to achieve the topological phase via the application of external biaxial strain are demonstrated. Within the hybrid-functional picture, topological band structures are recovered under a pressure of 15% (17 GPa). The present work provides a potential avenue for uncovering new topological phases in metastable ferromagnetic phases.

Silicon is the ideal material for building electronic and photonic circuits at scale. Spin qubits and integrated photonic quantum technologies in silicon offer a promising path to scaling by leveraging advanced semiconductor manufacturing and integration capabilities. However, the lack of deterministic quantum light sources, two-photon gates, and spin-photon interfaces in silicon poses a major challenge to scalability. In this work, we show a new type of indistinguishable photon source in silicon photonics based on an artificial atom. We show that a G center in a silicon waveguide can generate high-purity telecom-band single photons. We perform high-resolution spectroscopy and time-delayed two-photon interference to demonstrate the indistinguishability of single photons emitted from a G center in a silicon waveguide. Our results show that artificial atoms in silicon photonics can source highly coherent single photons suitable for photonic quantum networks and processors., Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures

High-entropy alloys have shown much interest and unusual materials properties. The stability of equimolar single-phase solid solution of five or more elements is likely to be rare and identifying the existence of such alloys has been very challenging because of the very large space of possible combinations. Herein, based on high-throughput density-functional theory calculations, we construct a chemical map of single-phase equimolar high entropy alloys by investigating over 650000 equimolar quinary alloys through a binary regular solid-solution model. We identify more than 30000 potential single-phase equimolar alloys (5% of the possible combinations) forming mainly in body-centered cubic structures. We unveil the chemistries that are likely to form high-entropy alloys, and identify the complex interplay among mixing enthalpy, intermetallics formation, and melting point that drives the formation of these solid solutions. We demonstrate the power of our method by predicting the existence of two new high entropy alloys, i.e. the body-centered cubic AlCoMnNiV and the face-centered cubic CoFeMnNiZn, which are successfully synthesized., Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, 1 table (excluding SI)

By investigating the vacancy and substitutional defects in monolayer WS$_2$ with hybrid functionals, we find that there is no unique amount of Fock exchange that concurrently satisfies the generalized Koopmans' condition and reproduces the band gap and band-edge positions. Fixing the mixing parameter of Fock exchange based upon the band gap can lead to qualitatively incorrect defect physics in two-dimensional materials. Instead, excellent agreement is achieved with experiment and many-body perturbation theory within $GW$ approximation once the mixing parameters are tuned individually for the defects and the band edges. We show the departure from a unique optimized mixing parameter is inherent to two-dimensional systems as the band edges experience a reduced screening whilst the localized defects are subject to bulklike screening., Comment: Main manuscript (7 pages, 3 figures) with supplemental material (3 pages, 5 figures)

High-power infrared laser systems with broadband tunability are of great importance due to their wide range of applications in spectroscopy and free-space communications. These systems require nonlinear optical (NLO) crystals for wavelength up/down conversion using sum/difference frequency generation, respectively. NLO crystals need to satisfy many competing criteria, including large nonlinear optical susceptibility, large laser induced damage threshold (LIDT), wide transparency range and phase-matchability. Here, we report bulk single crystals of SnP_2S_6 with a large non-resonant SHG coefficient of d33= 53 pm/V at 1550nm and a large LIDT of 350 GW/cm^2 for femtosecond laser pulses. It also exhibits a broad transparency range from 0.54 {\mu}m to 8.5{\mu}m (bandgap of ~2.3 eV) and can be both Type I and Type II phase-matched. The complete linear and SHG tensors are measured as well as predicted by first principles calculations, and they are in excellent agreement. A proximate double-resonance condition in the electronic band structure for both the fundamental and the SHG light is shown to enhance the non-resonant SHG response. Therefore, SnP2S6 is an outstanding candidate for infrared laser applications.

The mobility of carriers, as limited by their scattering with phonons, can now routinely be obtained from first-principles electron-phonon coupling calculations. However, so far, most computations have relied on some form of simplification of the linearized Boltzmann transport equation based on either the self-energy, the momentum- or constant relaxation time approximations. Here, we develop a high-throughput infrastructure and an automatic workflow and we compute 69 phonon-limited mobilities in semiconductors. We compare the results resorting to the approximations with the exact iterative solution. We conclude that the approximate values may deviate significantly from the exact ones and are thus not reliable. Given the minimal computational overhead, our work encourages to rely on this exact iterative solution and warns on the possible inaccuracy of earlier results reported using relaxation time approximations., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures

The T-center in silicon is a well-known carbon-based color center that has been recently considered for quantum technology applications. Using first principles computations, we show that the excited state is formed by a defect-bound exciton made of a localized defect state occupied by an electron to which a hole is bound. The localized state is of strong carbon \textit{p} character and reminiscent of the localization of the unpaired electron in the ethyl radical molecule. The radiative lifetime for the defect-bound exciton is calculated to be on the order of $\mu$s, much longer than other quantum defects such as the NV center in diamond and in agreement with experiments. The longer lifetime is associated with the small transition dipole moment as a result of the very different nature of the localized and delocalized states forming the defect-bound exciton. Finally, we use first principles calculations to assess the stability of the T-center. We find the T-center to be stable against decomposition into simpler defects when keeping the stoichiometry fixed. However, we identify that the T-center is easily prone to (de)hydrogenation and so requires very precise annealing conditions (temperature and atmosphere) to be efficiently formed.

We report a giant thermoelectric figure of merit $ZT$ (up to 6 at 1100 K) in $n$-doped lanthanum oxysulphate LaSO. Thermoelectric coefficients are computed from ab initio bands within Bloch-Boltzmann theory in an energy-, chemical potential- and temperature-dependent relaxation time approximation. The lattice thermal conductivity is estimated from a model employing the ab initio phonon and Gr\"uneisen-parameter spectrum. The main source of the large $ZT$ is the significant power factor which correlates with a large band complexity factor. We also suggest a possible $n$-type dopant for the material based on ab initio calculations.

The Open Databases Integration for Materials Design (OPTIMADE) consortium has designed a universal application programming interface (API) to make materials databases accessible and interoperable. We outline the first stable release of the specification, v1.0, which is already supported by many leading databases and several software packages. We illustrate the advantages of the OPTIMADE API through worked examples on each of the public materials databases that support the full API specification., Comment: 11 pages, 1 table

High Entropy Alloys (HEAs) contain near equimolar amounts of five or more elements and are a compelling space for materials design. Great emphasis is placed on identifying HEAs that form a homogeneous solid-solution, but the design of such HEAs is hindered by the difficulty of navigating stability relationships in high-component spaces. Traditional phase diagrams use barycentric coordinates to represent composition axes, which require D = (N - 1) spatial dimensions to represent an N-component system, meaning that HEA systems with N > 4 components cannot be readily visualized. Here, we propose forgoing barycentric composition axes in favor of two energy axes: a formation-energy axis and a 'reaction energy' axis. These Inverse Hull Webs offer an information-dense 2D representation that successfully capture complex phase stability relationships in N > 4 component systems. We use our new diagrams to visualize the transition of HEA solid-solutions from high-temperature stability to metastability upon quenching, and identify important thermodynamic features that are correlated with the persistence or decomposition of metastable HEAs., Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures

Combining ferroelectricity with other properties such as visible light absorption or long-range magnetic order requires the discovery of new families of ferroelectric materials. Here, through the analysis of a high-throughput database of phonon band structures, we identify a new structural family of anti-Ruddlesden-Popper phases A$_4$X$_2$O (A=Ca, Sr, Ba, Eu, X=Sb, P, As, Bi) showing ferroelectric and anti-ferroelectric behaviors. The discovered ferroelectrics belong to the new class of hyperferroelectrics which polarize even under open-circuit boundary conditions. The polar distortion involves the movement of O anions against apical A cations and is driven by geometric effects resulting from internal chemical strains. Within this new structural family, we show that Eu$_4$Sb$_2$O combines coupled ferromagnetic and ferroelectric order at the same atomic site, a very rare occurrence in materials physics., Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures with supplemental information attached

Incorporation of physical principles in a network-based machine learning (ML) architecture is a fundamental step toward the continued development of artificial intelligence for materials science and condensed matter physics. In this work, as inspired by the Pauling rule, we propose that structure motifs (polyhedral formed by cations and surrounding anions) in inorganic crystals can serve as a central input to a machine learning framework for crystalline inorganic materials. Taking metal oxides as examples, we demonstrated that, an unsupervised learning algorithm Motif2Vec is able to convert the presence of structure motifs and their connections in a large set of crystalline compounds into unique vector representations. The connections among complex materials can be largely determined by the presence of different structure motifs and their clustering information are identified by our Motif2Vec algorithm. To demonstrate the novel use of structure motif information, we show that a motif-centric learning framework can be effectively created by combining motif information with the recently developed atom-based graph neural networks to form an atom-motif dual graph network (AMDNet). Taking advantage of node and edge information on both atomic and motif level, the AMDNet is more accurate than an atom graph network in predicting electronic structure related material properties of metal oxides such as band gaps. The work illustrates the route toward fundamental design of graph neural network learning architecture for complex material properties by incorporating beyond-atom physical principles., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, 1 table

Machine learning driven interatomic potentials, including Gaussian approximation potential (GAP) models, are emerging tools for atomistic simulations. Here, we address the methodological question of how one can fit GAP models that accurately predict vibrational properties in specific regions of configuration space, whilst retaining flexibility and transferability to others. We use an adaptive regularization of the GAP fit that scales with the absolute force magnitude on any given atom, thereby exploring the Bayesian interpretation of GAP regularization as an "expected error", and its impact on the prediction of physical properties for a material of interest. The approach enables excellent predictions of phonon modes (to within 0.1-0.2 THz) for structurally diverse silicon allotropes, and it can be coupled with existing fitting databases for high transferability. These findings and workflows are expected to be useful for GAP-driven materials modeling more generally., Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables; submitted to The Journal of Chemical Physics