First-principles study of interface energies in Fe-Al-based superalloy nanocomposites

Fe-Al-based nanocomposites with a superalloy-type of microstructure constitute a very promising class of materials. They possess a great potential as an alternative to the currently used steel grades in high temperature applications. Intermetallics-containing nanocomposites, such as those with the Fe3Al compound being one of the phases, may open a way towards future automotive and energy-conversion technologies with lower fuel consumption and reduced environmental impact. We employ quantum-mechanical calculations to analyze relations between ordering tendencies of Al atoms in the disordered Fe-18.75at.%Al phase on one hand and thermodynamic, structural and magnetic properties of Fe-Al-based nanocomposites on the other. When comparing supercells modeling disordered Fe-Al phase with different atomic distribution of atoms we find out that the supercell without 1st and 2nd nearest neighbor Al-Al pairs has a lower energy than that mimicking a perfect disorder (a special quasi-random structure, SQS). Further, coherent interfaces with (001), (110) and (1-10) crystallographic orientations between Fe3Al compound and SQS Fe-Al phase have higher energies than those exhibiting atomic distribution without 1st and 2nd nearest neighbor Al-Al pairs

The Cost of Improving the Precision of the Variational Quantum Eigensolver for Quantum Chemistry

New approaches into computational quantum chemistry can be developed through the use of quantum computing. While universal, fault-tolerant quantum computers are still not available, and we want to utilize today’s noisy quantum processors. One of their flagship applications is the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE)—an algorithm for calculating the minimum energy of a physical Hamiltonian. In this study, we investigate how various types of errors affect the VQE and how to efficiently use the available resources to produce precise computational results. We utilize a simulator of a noisy quantum device, an exact statevector simulator, and physical quantum hardware to study the VQE algorithm for molecular hydrogen. We find that the optimal method of running the hybrid classical-quantum optimization is to: (i) allow some noise in intermediate energy evaluations, using fewer shots per step and fewer optimization iterations, but ensure a high final readout precision; (ii) emphasize efficient problem encoding and ansatz parametrization; and (iii) run all experiments within a short time-frame, avoiding parameter drift with time. Nevertheless, current publicly available quantum resources are still very noisy and scarce/expensive, and even when using them efficiently, it is quite difficult to perform trustworthy calculations of molecular energies

An Ab Initio Study of Vacancies in Disordered Magnetic Systems: A Case Study of Fe-Rich Fe-Al Phases

We have performed quantum-mechanical calculations to examine the impact of disorder on thermodynamic, structural and electronic (magnetic) properties of Fe-Al systems with vacancies. A series of supercells was used and their properties were computed employing density-functional theory (DFT) as implemented in the VASP package. Our case study is primarily aimed at a disordered solid solution Fe 81.25 Al 18.75 but we have compared our results also with those obtained for the ordered Fe 3 Al intermetallic compound for which experimental data exist in literature. Both phases are found in Fe-Al-based superalloys. The Fe-18.75at.%Al solid solution was simulated using special quasirandom structures (SQS) in three different disordered states with a different distribution of Al atoms. In particular, we have considered a general disordered case (an A2-like variant), the case without the first nearest neighbor Al-Al pairs (a B2-like distribution of atoms) and also the case without both the first and second nearest neighbor Al-Al pairs (the D0 3 -like variant, in fact, an Fe-rich Fe 3 Al phase). The vacancy formation energies as well as the volumes of (fully relaxed) supercells with vacancies showed a large scatter for the disordered systems. The vacancy formation energies decrease with increasing concentration of Al atoms in the first coordination shell around the vacancy (an anti-correlation) for all disordered cases studied. The computed volumes of vacancies were found significantly lower (by 25–60%) when compared with the equilibrium volume of the missing atoms in their elemental states. Lastly, we have analyzed interactions between the vacancies and the Fe atoms and evaluated vacancy-induced changes in local magnetic moments of Fe atoms

Rozsah a dopady podpory výzkumu a inovací v zemích bývalého Československa

Research and innovation influence economic performance and competitiveness strongly. This area is in the spotlight of national governments, as well as the European Commission. This article aims to assess the economic development of two countries of the former Czechoslovakia during the period 1970 -2009 by GDP per capita, investment and share the drivers and welfare industries, and compare the support of research and innovation activities in both countries. The support of research and innovation is evaluated in the form of institutional support, direct funding and indirect support. It shows that the evaluated economies have some features analogous, but in some parameters, there are differences. However, the ways to improve the condition seem to be in terms of membership in the EU alike

An Ab Initio Study of Vacancies in Disordered Magnetic Systems: A Case Study of Fe-Rich Fe-Al Phases

We have performed quantum-mechanical calculations to examine the impact of disorder on thermodynamic, structural and electronic (magnetic) properties of Fe-Al systems with vacancies. A series of supercells was used and their properties were computed employing density-functional theory (DFT) as implemented in the VASP package. Our case study is primarily aimed at a disordered solid solution Fe 81.25 Al 18.75 but we have compared our results also with those obtained for the ordered Fe 3 Al intermetallic compound for which experimental data exist in literature. Both phases are found in Fe-Al-based superalloys. The Fe-18.75at.%Al solid solution was simulated using special quasirandom structures (SQS) in three different disordered states with a different distribution of Al atoms. In particular, we have considered a general disordered case (an A2-like variant), the case without the first nearest neighbor Al-Al pairs (a B2-like distribution of atoms) and also the case without both the first and second nearest neighbor Al-Al pairs (the D0 3 -like variant, in fact, an Fe-rich Fe 3 Al phase). The vacancy formation energies as well as the volumes of (fully relaxed) supercells with vacancies showed a large scatter for the disordered systems. The vacancy formation energies decrease with increasing concentration of Al atoms in the first coordination shell around the vacancy (an anti-correlation) for all disordered cases studied. The computed volumes of vacancies were found significantly lower (by 25−60%) when compared with the equilibrium volume of the missing atoms in their elemental states. Lastly, we have analyzed interactions between the vacancies and the Fe atoms and evaluated vacancy-induced changes in local magnetic moments of Fe atoms

Impact of Nano-Scale Distribution of Atoms on Electronic and Magnetic Properties of Phases in Fe-Al Nanocomposites: An Ab Initio Study

Quantum-mechanical calculations are applied to examine magnetic and electronic properties of phases appearing in binary Fe-Al-based nanocomposites. The calculations are carried out using the Vienna Ab-initio Simulation Package which implements density functional theory and generalized gradient approximation. The focus is on a disordered solid solution with 18.75 at. % Al in body-centered-cubic ferromagnetic iron, so-called α -phase, and an ordered intermetallic compound Fe 3 Al with the D0 3 structure. In order to reveal the impact of the actual atomic distribution in the disordered Fe-Al α -phase three different special quasi-random structures with or without the 1st and/or 2nd nearest-neighbor Al-Al pairs are used. According to our calculations, energy decreases when eliminating the 1st and 2nd nearest neighbor Al-Al pairs. On the other hand, the local magnetic moments of the Fe atoms decrease with Al concentration in the 1st coordination sphere and increase if the concentration of Al atoms increases in the 2nd one. Furthermore, when simulating Fe-Al/Fe 3 Al nanocomposites (superlattices), changes of local magnetic moments of the Fe atoms up to 0.5 μ B are predicted. These changes very sensitively depend on both the distribution of atoms and the crystallographic orientation of the interfaces

Best-Practice Aspects of Quantum-Computer Calculations: A Case Study of the Hydrogen Molecule

Quantum computers are reaching one crucial milestone after another. Motivated by their progress in quantum chemistry, we performed an extensive series of simulations of quantum-computer runs that were aimed at inspecting the best-practice aspects of these calculations. In order to compare the performance of different setups, the ground-state energy of the hydrogen molecule was chosen as a benchmark for which the exact solution exists in the literature. Applying the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) to a qubit Hamiltonian obtained by the Bravyi–Kitaev transformation, we analyzed the impact of various computational technicalities. These included (i) the choice of the optimization methods, (ii) the architecture of the quantum circuits, as well as (iii) the different types of noise when simulating real quantum processors. On these, we eventually performed a series of experimental runs as a complement to our simulations. The simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation (SPSA) and constrained optimization by linear approximation (COBYLA) optimization methods clearly outperformed the Nelder–Mead and Powell methods. The results obtained when using the Ry variational form were better than those obtained when the RyRz form was used. The choice of an optimum entangling layer was sensitively interlinked with the choice of the optimization method. The circular entangling layer was found to worsen the performance of the COBYLA method, while the full-entangling layer improved it. All four optimization methods sometimes led to an energy that corresponded to an excited state rather than the ground state. We also show that a similarity analysis of measured probabilities can provide a useful insight

Origin of the Low Magnetic Moment in Fe2AlTi: An Ab Initio Study

The intermetallic compound Fe 2 AlTi (alternatively Fe 2 TiAl) is an important phase in the ternary Fe-Al-Ti phase diagram. Previous theoretical studies showed a large discrepancy of approximately an order of magnitude between the ab initio computed magnetic moments and the experimentally measured ones. To unravel the source of this discrepancy, we analyze how various mechanisms present in realistic materials such as residual strain effects or deviations from stoichiometry affect magnetism. Since in spin-unconstrained calculations the system always evolves to the spin configuration which represents a local or global minimum in the total energy surface, finite temperature spin effects are not well described. We therefore turn the investigation around and use constrained spin calculations, fixing the global magnetic moment. This approach provides direct insight into local and global energy minima (reflecting metastable and stable spin phases) as well as the curvature of the energy surface, which correlates with the magnetic entropy and thus the magnetic configuration space accessible at finite temperatures. Based on this approach, we show that deviations from stoichiometry have a huge impact on the local magnetic moment and can explain the experimentally observed low magnetic moments