Microscopic theory of ionic motion in solids

Drag and diffusion of mobile ions in solids are of interest for both purely theoretical and applied scientific communities. This article proposes a theoretical description of ion drag in solids that can be used to estimate ionic conductivities in crystals, and forms a basis for the rational design of solid electrolyte materials. Starting with a general solid-state Hamiltonian, we employ the non-equilibrium path integral formalism to develop a microscopic theory of ionic transport in solids in the presence of thermal fluctuations. As required by the fluctuation-dissipation theorem, we obtain a relation between the variance of the random force and friction. Because of the crystalline nature of the system, however, the two quantities are tensorial. We use the drag tensor to write down the formula for ionic mobility, determined by the potential profile generated by the crystal's ions.