Developing a neural network machine learning interatomic potential for molecular dynamics simulations of La–Si–P systems

While molecular dynamics (MD) is a very useful computational method for atomistic simulations, modeling the interatomic interactions for reliable MD simulations of real materials has been a long-standing challenge. In 2007, Behler and Parrinello first proposed and demonstrated an artificial neural network machine learning (ANN-ML) scheme, opening a new paradigm for developing accurate and efficient interatomic potentials for reliable MD simulation studies of the thermodynamics and kinetics of materials. In this paper, we show that an accurate and transferable ANN-ML interatomic potential can be developed for MD simulations of the La-Si-P system. The crucial role of training data in the ML potential development is discussed. The developed ANN-ML potential accurately describes not only the energy vs volume curves for all the known elemental, binary, and ternary crystalline structures in the La-Si-P system but also the structures of La-Si-P liquids with various compositions. Using the developed ANN-ML potential, the melting temperatures of several crystalline phases in the La-Si-P system are predicted by the coexistence of solid-liquid phases from MD simulations. While the ANN-ML model systematically underestimates the melting temperatures of these phases, the overall trend agrees with experiment. The developed ANN-ML potential is also applied to study the nucleation and growth of LaP as a function of different relative concentrations of Si and P in the La-Si-P liquid, and the obtained results are consistent with experimental observations.