用大模型生成晶体结构,不靠旧模板也能发现新物质。
NextCrystal: a Symmetry-Driven Generative Framework for Crystal Structure Prediction
- 用语言模型解析化学语义,直接生成原子位置模式
- 通过线性启发式搜索确保对称性与化学配比严格一致
- 可发现全新稳定结构,适合材料设计与新物质量产
晶体结构预测(CSP)旨在从化学组成推断晶体的三维原子排布,是材料发现与机理理解的核心。晶体对称性在其中至关重要,但现有方法或难以严格处理对称性约束带来的组合难题,或依赖已知结构模板,限制了物理真实性与新物质发现。为此,我们提出NextCrystal,一种基于对称性的生成框架:利用大语言模型编码化学语义,直接从原子化学计量比生成精细的Wyckoff位点模式,无需数据库检索。为克服位点分配的组合复杂性,引入高效线性复杂度的启发式束搜索,严格保证位点多重性与原子化学计量的一致性。将此对称一致模板融入扩散模型主干,约束随机生成轨迹位于物理合理的几何流形内。NextCrystal在稳定性、唯一性和新颖性(SUN)基准上达到当前最优表现,并在结构匹配上显著领先,建立了一种无需依赖先验结构模板即可探索未被覆盖晶格空间的严谨范式。作为代表性应用,基于第一性原理筛选由NextCrystal生成的HfO2候选结构,发现一种此前未报道的动态稳定Pnma相,能量比传统高压Pnma相低0.056~eV/atom。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Crystal structure prediction (CSP), which aims to predict the 3D atomic arrangement of a crystal from its composition, is central to materials discovery and mechanistic understanding. Crystal symmetry plays a crucial role in CSP, but given the composition in a unit cell, existing methods either struggle with the NP-hard combinatorial challenge of enforcing symmetry rigorously or rely on retrieving known templates, inherently limiting both physical fidelity and the discovery of genuinely new materials. To address this challenge, we introduce NextCrystal, a symmetry-driven generative framework that employs large language models to encode chemical semantics and directly generate fine-grained Wyckoff site patterns from atomic stoichiometry, eliminating reliance on database lookups. To overcome the combinatorial complexity of site assignments, we incorporate domain knowledge via an efficient, linear-complexity heuristic beam search, rigorously enforcing algebraic consistency between site multiplicities and atomic stoichiometry. By integrating this symmetry-consistent template into a diffusion backbone, the framework constrains the stochastic generative trajectory to a physically plausible geometric manifold. NextCrystal achieves state-of-the-art performance on stability, uniqueness, and novelty (SUN) benchmarks, as well as superior structural matching, establishing a rigorous paradigm for exploring previously unexplored crystallographic space without relying on prior structural templates. As a representative application, first-principles screening of HfO2 candidates generated by NextCrystal identifies a previously unreported dynamically stable Pnma phase, 0.056~eV/atom lower in energy than the conventional high-pressure Pnma phase.
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