MTRL-SCIJul 5, 2024
Structural Constraint Integration in Generative Model for Discovery of Quantum Material CandidatesRyotaro Okabe, Mouyang Cheng, Abhijatmedhi Chotrattanapituk et al.
Billions of organic molecules are known, but only a tiny fraction of the functional inorganic materials have been discovered, a particularly relevant problem to the community searching for new quantum materials. Recent advancements in machine-learning-based generative models, particularly diffusion models, show great promise for generating new, stable materials. However, integrating geometric patterns into materials generation remains a challenge. Here, we introduce Structural Constraint Integration in the GENerative model (SCIGEN). Our approach can modify any trained generative diffusion model by strategic masking of the denoised structure with a diffused constrained structure prior to each diffusion step to steer the generation toward constrained outputs. Furthermore, we mathematically prove that SCIGEN effectively performs conditional sampling from the original distribution, which is crucial for generating stable constrained materials. We generate eight million compounds using Archimedean lattices as prototype constraints, with over 10% surviving a multi-staged stability pre-screening. High-throughput density functional theory (DFT) on 26,000 survived compounds shows that over 50% passed structural optimization at the DFT level. Since the properties of quantum materials are closely related to geometric patterns, our results indicate that SCIGEN provides a general framework for generating quantum materials candidates.
MTRL-SCIMay 15
Universal Magnetic Structure Prediction from Atomic Coordinates with Near-Experimental AccuracyAbhijatmedhi Chotrattanapituk, Ryotaro Okabe, Eunbi Rha et al.
Magnetic order is a fundamental property of materials, governing collective behavior and enabling a broad range of functionalities. Yet magnetic structure remains difficult to determine: experiments are costly and specialized, while first-principles methods often struggle with the noncollinear and incommensurate orders found in real materials. Here we introduce magnetic structure network (MSN), an E(3) equivariant graph neural network that predicts both collinear and non-collinear magnetic structures directly from atomic crystal structures, trained directly on experimentally determined structures from MAGNDATA. By proposing the primitive modulated structure representation (PMSR), we are able to encode commensurate and incommensurate structures in a unified way without symmetry assumptions. The model achieves strong performance across all modulation components and reconstructs experimental magnetic structures with high fidelity. Our approach provides a scalable framework for rapid magnetic structure prediction and opens a route to data-driven discovery of magnetic materials.
MTRL-SCIFeb 5, 2025
AI-driven materials design: a mini-reviewMouyang Cheng, Chu-Liang Fu, Ryotaro Okabe et al.
Materials design is an important component of modern science and technology, yet traditional approaches rely heavily on trial-and-error and can be inefficient. Computational techniques, enhanced by modern artificial intelligence (AI), have greatly accelerated the design of new materials. Among these approaches, inverse design has shown great promise in designing materials that meet specific property requirements. In this mini-review, we summarize key computational advancements for materials design over the past few decades. We follow the evolution of relevant materials design techniques, from high-throughput forward machine learning (ML) methods and evolutionary algorithms, to advanced AI strategies like reinforcement learning (RL) and deep generative models. We highlight the paradigm shift from conventional screening approaches to inverse generation driven by deep generative models. Finally, we discuss current challenges and future perspectives of materials inverse design. This review may serve as a brief guide to the approaches, progress, and outlook of designing future functional materials with technological relevance.
MTRL-SCIMay 31, 2025
A Foundation Model for Non-Destructive Defect Identification from Vibrational SpectraMouyang Cheng, Chu-Liang Fu, Bowen Yu et al.
Defects are ubiquitous in solids and strongly influence materials' mechanical and functional properties. However, non-destructive characterization and quantification of defects, especially when multiple types coexist, remain a long-standing challenge. Here we introduce DefectNet, a foundation machine learning model that predicts the chemical identity and concentration of substitutional point defects with multiple coexisting elements directly from vibrational spectra, specifically phonon density-of-states (PDoS). Trained on over 16,000 simulated spectra from 2,000 semiconductors, DefectNet employs a tailored attention mechanism to identify up to six distinct defect elements at concentrations ranging from 0.2% to 25%. The model generalizes well to unseen crystals across 56 elements and can be fine-tuned on experimental data. Validation using inelastic scattering measurements of SiGe alloys and MgB$_2$ superconductor demonstrates its accuracy and transferability. Our work establishes vibrational spectroscopy as a viable, non-destructive probe for point defect quantification in bulk materials, and highlights the promise of foundation models in data-driven defect engineering.
MTRL-SCIOct 28, 2024
Large Language Model-Guided Prediction Toward Quantum Materials SynthesisRyotaro Okabe, Zack West, Abhijatmedhi Chotrattanapituk et al.
The synthesis of inorganic crystalline materials is essential for modern technology, especially in quantum materials development. However, designing efficient synthesis workflows remains a significant challenge due to the precise experimental conditions and extensive trial and error. Here, we present a framework using large language models (LLMs) to predict synthesis pathways for inorganic materials, including quantum materials. Our framework contains three models: LHS2RHS, predicting products from reactants; RHS2LHS, predicting reactants from products; and TGT2CEQ, generating full chemical equations for target compounds. Fine-tuned on a text-mined synthesis database, our model raises accuracy from under 40% with pretrained models, to under 80% using conventional fine-tuning, and further to around 90% with our proposed generalized Tanimoto similarity, while maintaining robust to additional synthesis steps. Our model further demonstrates comparable performance across materials with varying degrees of quantumness quantified using quantum weight, indicating that LLMs offer a powerful tool to predict balanced chemical equations for quantum materials discovery.