0000000000583260
AUTHOR
Jens K. Nørskov
Electronic structure calculations with GPAW: a real-space implementation of the projector augmented-wave method.
Electronic structure calculations have become an indispensable tool in many areas of materials science and quantum chemistry. Even though the Kohn-Sham formulation of the density-functional theory (DFT) simplifies the many-body problem significantly, one is still confronted with several numerical challenges. In this article we present the projector augmented-wave (PAW) method as implemented in the GPAW program package (https://wiki.fysik.dtu.dk/gpaw) using a uniform real-space grid representation of the electronic wavefunctions. Compared to more traditional plane wave or localized basis set approaches, real-space grids offer several advantages, most notably good computational scalability an…
Ammonia Synthesis: State of the Bellwether Reaction
Catalytic ammonia synthesis has been judged to be one of mankind's greatest scientific achievements during the twentieth century. The socioeconomic implications of producing ammonia industrially have been a strong driving force, and this development has spurred a range of new discoveries within physics, chemistry, and chemical engineering. In this chapter, we describe how it has been possible in recent years to provide a full understanding of the catalytic ammonia synthesis reaction at the atomic level through the combined use of experiments and quantum mechanical electronic structure calculations, thus clearly showing many of the reasons why ammonia synthesis has been, and still is, the be…
Quantum Motion of Chemisorbed Hydrogen on Ni Surfaces
Quantum mechanical energy levels and wave functions have been calculated for the motion of chemisorbed hydrogen atoms on Ni surfaces. The results show considerable quantum effects for the adatom in both the ground and the excited states. The description of the adparticles as being delocalized along the surface offers a novel interpretation of several phenomena, in particular the vibrational excitations. Peer reviewed
Cu cluster shell structure at elevated temperatures
Equilibrium structures of small (3--29)-atom Cu clusters are determined by simulated annealing, and finite-temperature ensembles are simulated by Monte Carlo techniques using the effective-medium theory for the energy calculation. Clusters with 8, 18, and 20 atoms are found to be particularly stable. The equilibrium geometrical structures are determined and found to be determined by a Jahn-Teller distortion, which is found to affect the geometry also at high temperatures. The ``magic'' clusters retain their large stability even at elevated temperatures.