A theoretical prediction of ion conductivity for solid state HfO2 is carried out in analogy to ZrO2 based on the density functional calculation. Geometric and electronic structures of pure bulks exhibit similarity for the two materials. Negative formation enthalpy and negative vacancy formation energy are found for YSH （yttria-stabilized hafnia） and YSZ （yttria- stabilized zirconia）, suggesting the stability of both materials. Low activation energies （below 0.7 eV） of diffusion are found in both materials, and YSH＇s is a little higher than that of YSZ. In addition, for both HfO2 and ZrO2, the supercells with native oxygen vacancies are also studied. The so-called defect states are observed in the supercells with neutral and ＋1 charge native vacancy but not in the ＋2 charge one. It can give an explanation to the relatively lower activation energies of yttria-doped oxides and ＋2 charge vacancy supercells. A brief discussion is presented to explain the different YSH ion conductivities in the experiment and obtained by us, and we attribute this to the different ion vibrations at different temperatures.
This paper investigates the geometrical structures and relative stabilities of neutral A1Sn （n=2-9） using the density functional theory. Structural optimisation and frequency analysis are performed at the B3LYP/6-311C（d） level. The ground state structures of the A1Sn show that the sulfur atoms prefer not only to evenly distribute on both sides of the aluminum atom but also to form stable structures in AlSn clusters. The structures of pure Sn are fundamentally changed due to the doping of the Al atom. The fragmentation energies and the second-order energy differences are calculated and discussed. Among neutral AlSn （n = 2-9） clusters, AlS4 and AlS6 are the most stable.
The structural, elastic, phonon and electronic properties of a MnPd alloy have been investigated using the first- principles calculation. The calculated lattice constants and electronic structure agree well with the experimental results. The microscopic mechanism of the diffusionless martensitic transition from the paramagnetic B2 （PM-B2） phase to the antiferromagnetic L10 （AFM-L10） phase through the intermediate paramagnetic L10 （PM-L10） phase has been explored theoretically. The obtained negative shear modulus C＇ - （C11 - C12）/2 of the PM-B2 phase is closely related to the instability of the cubic B2 phase with respect to the tetragonal distortions. The calculated phonon dispersions for the PM-L10 and AFM-L10 phases indicate that they are dynamically stable. However, the AFM-L10 phase is energetically most favorable according to the calculated total energy order, so the PM-L10 -＋AFM-L10 transition is caused by the magnetism rather than the electron-phonon interaction. Additionally, the AFM-L10 state is stabilized through the formation of a pseudo gap located at the Fermi level. The calculated results show that the CuAu-I type structure in the collinear antiferromagnetic state is dynamically and mechanically stable, thus is the low temperature phase.
