Linking Structure, Energetics and Dynamics Collective Ionic Transport in Fast-Ion-Conductors

Collective Ionic Transport in Fast-Ion-Conductors Let us once more consider Ba2In2O5. The energetic preference for certain structural entities discussed above necessarily has implications for ionic transport due to restraints imposed by local symmetry. The conventional vacancy jump mechanism would for Ba2In2O5 allow different types of local short-range order that we here show are of high energy and thus make a negligible contribution; thus the ionic movement is highly restricted by the local symmetry. O(1) and O(2) are fully populated to 1500 K after which the population of O(2) decreases significantly. O(1) is fully populated to significantly higher temperatures which supports the two-dimensional disorder and conductivity at intermediate temperatures reported previously. The very nature of the lowenergy structural configurations has even more extensive fundamental implications for the ionic conductivity. Transition paths connecting different low-energy CNCs characterized using the Nudge-elastic-band method strongly indicates that collective ion movements are important in fast oxide-ion conductors such as Ba2In2O5.