Rapid estimation of elastic constants by molecular dynamics simulation under constant stress

Abstract

Molecular simulations, when they are used to understand properties characterizing the mechanical strength of solid materials, such as stress-strain relation or Born stability criterion, by using elastic constants, are sometimes seriously time consuming. In order to resolve this problem, we propose an efficient simulation approach under constant external stress and temperature, modifying Parrinello-Rahman (PR) method using useful sampling techniques developed recently—massive Nosé-Hoover chain method and hybrid Monte Carlo method. Test calculations on the Ni crystal employing the embedded atom method have shown that our method greatly improved the efficiency in sampling the elastic properties compared with the conventional PR method.