Search results for " defect"
showing 10 items of 767 documents
Ab initio modelling of UN grain boundary interfaces
2012
The uranium mononitride (UN) is a material considered as a promising candidate for Generation-IV nuclear reactor fuels. Unfortunately, oxygen in air affects UN fuel performance and stability. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the mechanism of oxygen adsorption and further UN oxidation in the bulk and at surface. Recently, we performed a detailed study on oxygen interaction with UN surface using density functional theory (DFT) calculations. We were able to identify an atomistic mechanism of UN surface oxidation consisting of several important steps, starting with the oxygen molecule dissociation and finishing with oxygen atom incorporation into vacancies on the surface. However, in re…
Structural, chemical and dynamical trends in graphene grain boundaries
2010
Grain boundaries are topological defects that often have a disordered character. Disorder implies that understanding general trends is more important than accurate investigations of individual grain boundaries. Here we present trends in the grain boundaries of graphene. We use density-functional tight-binding method to calculate trends in energy, atomic structure (polygon composition), chemical reactivity (dangling bond density), corrugation heights (inflection angles), and dynamical properties (vibrations), as a function of lattice orientation mismatch. The observed trends and their mutual interrelations are plausibly explained by structure, and supported by past experiments.
Hydrogen-related conversion processes of Ge-related point defects in silica triggered by UV laser irradiation
2005
The conversion processes of Ge-related point defects triggered in amorphous SiO2 by 4.7eV laser exposure were investigated. Our study has focused on the interplay between the (=Ge•-H) H(II) center and the twofold coordinated Ge defect (=Ge••). The former is generated in the post-irradiation stage, while the latter decays both during and after exposure. The post-irradiation decay kinetics of =Ge•• is isolated and found to be anti-correlated to the growth of H(II), at least at short times. From this finding it is suggested that both processes are due to trapping of radiolytic H0 at the diamagnetic defect site. Furthermore, the anti-correlated behavior is preserve…
UV-Photoinduced Defects In Ge-Doped Optical Fibers
2005
We investigated the effect of continuous-wave (cw) UV laser radiation on single-mode Ge-doped H2- loaded optical fibers. An innovative technique was developed to measure the optical absorption (OA) induced in the samples by irradiation, and to study its dependence from laser fluence. The combined use of the electron spin resonance (ESR) technique allowed the structural identification of several radiation-induced point defects, among which the Ge(1) (GeO4 -) is found to be responsible of induced OA in the investigated spectral region.
Ab initio modeling of oxygen impurity atom incorporation into uranium mononitride surface and subsurface vacancies
2011
The incorporation of oxygen atoms has been simulated into either nitrogen or uranium vacancy at the UN(001) surface, sub-surface or central layers. For calculations on the corresponding slab models both the relativistic pseudopotentials and the method of projector augmented-waves (PAW) as implemented in the VASP computer code have been used. The energies of O atom incorporation and solution within the defective UN surface have been calculated and discussed. For different configurations of oxygen ions at vacancies within the UN(001) slab, the calculated density of states and electronic charge re-distribution was analyzed. Considerable energetic preference of O atom incorporation into the N-v…
LCAO calculation of neutral defects in GaN
2005
Four well known HF, LDA, GGA and B3LYP Hamiltonians in LCAO approximation have been used in band structure calculations to obtain the main properties of the perfect GaN crystal with hexagonal lattice (C space group). Calculated lattice parameters, elastic constants and the band gap have been compared with the experimental data and the results of other calculations. As a consequence, the GGA Hamiltonian has been chosen, giving the lattice parameters a = 3.20 A, c = 5.20 A, u = 0.377, the bulk modulus B = 206 GPa and the energy gap Eg = 2.7 eV. These results reasonably reproduce the experimental data. For the point defects calculation (VGa, VN, MgGa, ZnGa, CN, and SiN) the supercell model was…
First principles simulations of F centers in cubic SrTiO 3
2005
Atomic and electronic structure of regular and O-deficient SrTiO3 have been studied. Several types of first principles atomistic simulations: Hartree-Fock method, Density Functional Theory, and hybrid HF-DFT functionals, have been applied to periodic models that consider supercells of different sizes (ranging between 40 and 240 atoms). We confirm the ionic character of the Sr-O bonds and the high covalency of the Ti-O2 substructure. For the stoichiometric cubic crystal; the lattice constant and bulk modulus correctly reproduce the experimental data whereas the band gap is only properly obtained by the B3PW functional. The relaxed geometry around the F center shows a large expansion of the t…
Positron Annihilation in Polycrystalline Metals Deformed by Uniaxial Tension
2005
Angular distributions of the positron annihilation quanta were measured for polycrystalline samples deformed by uniaxial tension up to difierent deformation degrees. The S parameter as a function of the W parameter was determined. The data obtained for samples elongated up to difierent elongation degrees indicate that in the proportionality and limited proportionality regions the changes in the physical properties of samples are governed mainly by generation of vacancies and formation and kinetics of transformations of vacancy clusters occurring flrst of all on the grains of monocrystallites. In the region of plastic deformations the dominant defects are dislocations and vacancies and their…
Calculations of radiation-induced point defects, polarons and excitons in ferroelectric perovskites
2002
Abstract We review results of our recent large-scale computer simulations of radiation-induced point defects, excitons and polarons in ABO3 perovskite crystals, focusing mostly on KNbO3 and KTaO3 as representative examples. We have calculated the atomic and electronic structure of defects, their optical absorption, defect-induced electron density redistribution, and activation energies for defect migration. The majority of our results were obtained using the quantum-chemical method of the intermediate neglect of differential overlap (INDO) based on the Hartree–Fock formalism, as well as the shell model (SM). The main findings are compared with those obtained by means of ab initio density fu…
Large scale computer modelling of point defects in ABO 3 perovskites
2005
We present results for basic intrinsic defects: F-type electron centers, free and bound electron and hole polarons in ABO3 perovskites. Both one-site (atomic) and two-site (molecular) hole polarons are expected to coexist, characterized by close absorption energies. Shell Model (SM) and intermediate neglect of differential overlap (INDO) calculations of the F center diffusion indicate that the relevant activation energy is quite low, ca. 0.8 eV. Further INDO calculations support the existence of self-trapped electron polarons in PbTiO3, BaTiO3, KNbO3, and KTaO3 crystals. The relevant lattice relaxation energies are typically 0.2 eV, whereas the optical absorption energies are around 0.8 eV.…