路径积分分子动力学模拟在相变问题中的应用  

Applications of path-integral molecular dynamics simulations to phase transition problems

作　　者：冯页新 陈基[1] 李新征[2] 王恩哥[1] 

机构地区：[1]北京大学国际量子材料科学中心,北京100871 [2]北京大学物理学院,北京100871

出　　处：《科学通报》2015年第30期2824-2832,共9页Chinese Science Bulletin

基　　金：国家优秀青年科学基金(11422431)资助

摘　　要：依据玻恩-奥本海默近似,理论模拟分子与凝聚态体系材料的性质,需要人们对电子结构和原子核运动两个层面的内容都进行尽量准确描述.目前,电子结构的计算已相对成熟,很多情况下密度泛函理论、传统量化或量子蒙特卡洛方法都能在量子力学的层面给出相当精准的结果;但就原子核运动的描述而言,绝大部分理论方法却还依赖于经典力学.越来越多的实验和理论工作表明,在很多材料的相变过程中,原子核的量子属性可能对相变行为产生重要的影响.将路径积分分子动力学方法与两相法、自由能计算等分子模拟方法结合,可以有效地处理相变问题中的核量子效应,进而对材料的相变行为进行准确地描述.本文将结合两个具体的例子,简要介绍近几年我们在该研究方向的一些工作进展.In order to predict the properties of materials from first principles simulations, both the electronic structures and the movement of nuclei should be accurately described. Till now, the electronic structure calculation methods have been relatively well developed, like the density-functional theory, the quantum chemical methods, and the diffusion quantum monte carlo method, etc. By using them, we can get the electronic structures of materials with different levels of accuracy. But the movements of nuclei are still often treated at a clasical level. More and more experimental and theoretical works have found that, the nuclear quantum effects （NQEs） are playing an important role in some phase transition porcesses. Melting line of hydrogen at high pressures were reported through coexistance simulations based on ab initio PIMD methods. We determined the melting temperature as a function of pressure and finded an atomic solid phase from 500 to 800 GPa, which melts at less than 200 K. Beyond this and up to 1200 GPa, a metallic atomic liquid is stable at temperatures as low as 50 K. The quantum motion of the protons is the key to the low melting temperature reported, as simulations with classical nuclei lead to considerably higher melting temperatures of about 300 K across the entire pressure range considered. Then, a combination of state-of-the-art theoretical methods were used to obtain an atomic level picture of classical and quantum ordering of protons in cold high-pressure solid hydrogen. Besides, Using a self-developed combination of the thermodynamic integration and the ab initio PIMD methods, we quantitatively studied the influence of NQEs on the melting of dense lithium at 45 GPa. We find that although the NQEs significantly change the free-energies of the competing solid and liquid phases, the melting temperature is lowered by only about 15 K, with values obtained using both classical and quantum nuclei in close proximity to a new experiment. So, by combining the path-integral molecular dynamics （PIMD）

关 键 词：路径积分 分子动力学 核量子效应 两相法 自由能计算 

分 类 号：O561[理学—原子与分子物理] O414.13[理学—物理]