Machine learning guided discovery of ternary compounds involving La and immiscible Co and Pb elements

Abstract

Ternary compounds with an immiscible pair of elements are relatively unexplored but promising for novel quantum materials discovery. Exploring what third element and its ratio that can be added to make stable ternary compounds out of an immiscible pair of elements remains a great challenge. In this work, we combine a machine learning (ML) method with ab initio calculations to efficiently search for the energetically favorable ternary La-Co-Pb compounds containing immiscible elements Co and Pb. Three previously reported structures are correctly captured by our approach. Moreover, we predict a ground state La3CoPb compound and 57 low-energy La-Co-Pb ternary compounds. Attempts to synthesize La3CoPb via multiple techniques produce mixed or multi-phases samples with, at best, ambiguous signals of the predicted lowest-energy La3CoPb and the second lowest-energy La18Co28Pb3 phases. The calculated results of Gibbs free energy are consistent with experiments, and will provide very useful guidance for further experimental synthesis.