News
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Correlation-driven phonon renormalization and the equation of state of 𝛾-cerium
Cerium is one of the strangest metals in the periodic table. Cool it down or squeeze it, and it can suddenly collapse by about 15% in volume — then warm it back up and it swells out again, all without ever changing its crystal structure. Physicists have puzzled over this behaviour for decades, because it…
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On the role of crack electrolyte wetting in the degradation and performance of battery active particles
The paper shows that cracks in lithium-ion battery cathode particles are not only damage features but also new electrochemical pathways: once electrolyte enters these cracks, lithium can move and react on internal crack surfaces rather than only on the outer particle surface. A detailed physics-based model that explicitly includes electrolyte inside and outside cracks is…
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Role of Intrinsic Electron Trapping in Negative Charging of Amorphous Alumina
Modern computer technology depends on nanoscale electronic devices. These devices rely on extremely thin layers of insulating materials which are in contact with metal or semiconducting electrodes. Many of these layers are amorphous, meaning their atoms are arranged in a disordered structure rather than the regular atomic patterns found in crystals. We use advanced atomistic computer simulations to investigate how this atomic disorder influences the…