Atomic scale simulations of hydrous vacancies in forsterite (NERC Grant NE/M000044/1)

These data files represent simulations of hydrated cation vacancies in the mantle mineral forsterite (Mg2SiO4) undertaken using the CASTEP atomic scale simulation code (http://www.castep.org/). Results from these simulations allow the structure relative stability of different defect configurations to be compared. Three types of cation vacancies are considered (M1, M2 and Si) each decorated by hydrogen in order to charge balance the system. For M1 and M2 this results in multiple configurations (with hydrogen bonded to different oxygen atoms around the vacant site). For Si there is only one configuration as all four oxygen atoms are bonded to hydrogen for the charge neutral defect. For each configuration input files detail the initial atomic structure of the defect along with simulation parameters. Output files record the progress of the simulation, the final atomic structure, the energy of this structure, and various predicted properties of the structure. Only ASCII output data is included as binary data created by CASTEP is not intended to be portable, and can easily be recreated using the ASCII files.