Full optimization of quasiharmonic free energy with an anharmonic lattice model: Application to thermal expansion and pyroelectricity of wurtzite GaN and ZnO

Abstract

We present a theory and a calculation scheme of structural optimization at finite temperatures within the quasiharmonic approximation (QHA). The theory is based on an efficient scheme of updating the interatomic force constants (IFCs) with the change of crystal structures, which we call the IFC renormalization. The cell shape and the atomic coordinates are treated equally and simultaneously optimized. We apply the theory to the thermal expansion and the pyroelectricity of wurtzite GaN and ZnO, which accurately reproduces the experimentally observed behaviors. Furthermore, we point out a general scheme to obtain correct $T$ dependence at the lowest order in constrained optimizations that reduce the number of effective degrees of freedom, which is helpful to perform efficient QHA calculations with little sacrificing of accuracy. We show that the scheme works properly for GaN and ZnO by comparing with the optimization of all the degrees of freedom.