A unified moment tensor potential for silicon, oxygen, and silica

Si and its oxides have been extensively explored in theoretical research due to their technological importance. Simultaneously describing interatomic interactions within both Si and SiO₂ without the use of ab initio methods is considered challenging, given the charge transfers involved. Herein, this challenge is overcome by developing a unified machine learning interatomic potentials describing the Si/SiO₂/O system, based on the moment tensor potential (MTP) framework. This MTP is trained using a comprehensive database generated using density functional theory simulations, encompassing diverse crystal structures, point defects, extended defects, and disordered structure. Extensive testing of the MTP is performed, indicating it can describe static and dynamic features of very diverse Si, O, and SiO₂ atomic structures with a degree of fidelity approaching that of DFT.