Search results for "bond"
showing 10 items of 3527 documents
Thermal Expansion in Small Metal Clusters and its Impact on the Electric Polarizability
2000
The thermal expansion coefficients of $\mathrm{Na}_{N}$ clusters with $8 \le N \le 40$ and $\mathrm{Al}_{7}$, $\mathrm{Al}_{13}^-$ and $\mathrm{Al}_{14}^-$ are obtained from {\it ab initio} Born-Oppenheimer LDA molecular dynamics. Thermal expansion of small metal clusters is considerably larger than that in the bulk and size-dependent. We demonstrate that the average static electric dipole polarizability of Na clusters depends linearly on the mean interatomic distance and only to a minor extent on the detailed ionic configuration when the overall shape of the electron density is enforced by electronic shell effects. The polarizability is thus a sensitive indicator for thermal expansion. We …
Searching for hexagonal analogues of the half-metallic half-Heusler XYZ compounds
2008
The XYZ half-Heusler crystal structure can conveniently be described as a tetrahedral zinc blende YZ structure which is stuffed by a slightly ionic X species. This description is well suited to understand the electronic structure of semiconducting 8-electron compounds such as LiAlSi (formulated Li$^+$[AlSi]$^-$) or semiconducting 18-electron compounds such as TiCoSb (formulated Ti$^{4+}$[CoSb]$^{4-}$). The basis for this is that [AlSi]$^-$ (with the same electron count as Si$_2$) and [CoSb]$^{4-}$ (the same electron count as GaSb), are both structurally and electronically, zinc-blende semiconductors. The electronic structure of half-metallic ferromagnets in this structure type can then be d…
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.
Orthorhombic Phase of Crystalline Polyethylene: A Monte Carlo Study
1996
In this paper we present a classical Monte Carlo simulation of the orthorhombic phase of crystalline polyethylene, using an explicit atom force field with unconstrained bond lengths and angles and periodic boundary conditions. We used a recently developed algorithm which apart from standard Metropolis local moves employs also global moves consisting of displacements of the center of mass of the whole chains in all three spatial directions as well as rotations of the chains around an axis parallel to the crystallographic c-direction. Our simulations are performed in the NpT ensemble, at zero pressure, and extend over the whole range of temperatures in which the orthorhombic phase is experime…
Optimizing density-functional simulations for two-dimensional metals
2022
Unlike covalent two-dimensional (2D) materials like graphene, 2D metals have non-layered structures due to their non-directional, metallic bonding. While experiments on 2D metals are still scarce and challenging, density-functional theory (DFT) provides an ideal approach to predict their basic properties and assist in their design. However, DFT methods have been rarely benchmarked against metallic bonding at low dimensions. Therefore, to identify optimal DFT attributes for a desired accuracy, we systematically benchmark exchange-correlation functionals from LDA to hybrids and basis sets from plane waves to local basis with different pseudopotentials. With 1D chain, 2D honeycomb, 2D square, …
Tuning of the photoinduced charge transfer process in donor-acceptor "double cable" copolymers
2003
The covalent linking of acceptor molecules to electron donating conjugated polymer is an approach for the development of new photoactive materials for the fabrication of organic photoelectric conversion devices. With this strategy we have designed a polyalkylthiophene copolymer series containing in the side chain anthraquinone molecules as electron acceptor. The peculiar features of the copolymers are the good processability and the ease in tailoring the content of acceptor moieties. Their potential use as photoactive materials is investigated in terms of the photoinduced charge transfer properties, studied by FTIR photoinduced absorption and Light Induced Electron Spin Resonance spectrosco…
New Insights into the Structure of the Vapor/Water Interface from Large-Scale First-Principles Simulations
2015
We present extensive ab initio simulations of the molecular arrangements at the vapor/water interface, which provide valuable insights into the interface structure. In particular, the simulations address the controversy of whether there is a significant amount of nondonor configurations at this prototypical interface, using a novel Car-Parrinello-like ab initio molecular dynamics approach. The interface is modeled by a system of 384 water molecules for 125 ps in a two-dimensional periodic slab, the most extensive ab initio molecular dynamics simulation to date. In contrast to previous theoretical simulations and X-ray absorption spectroscopy, but consistent with sum-frequency generation exp…
Role of Mobile Interstitial Oxygen Atoms in Defect Processes in Oxides: Interconversion between Oxygen-Associated Defects inSiO2Glass
2004
The role of mobile interstitial oxygen atoms (${\mathrm{O}}^{0}$) in defect processes in oxides is demonstrated by interconversion between the oxygen dangling bond and the peroxy radical (POR) in ${\mathrm{S}\mathrm{i}\mathrm{O}}_{2}$ glass. Superstoichiometric ${\mathrm{O}}^{0}$ was created by ${\mathrm{F}}_{2}$ laser photolysis of the interstitial ${\mathrm{O}}_{2}$. On annealing above $300\text{ }\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}\mathrm{C}$, ${\mathrm{O}}^{0}$ migrated and converted the oxygen dangling bond to POR. Exposure to 5.0 eV light converted POR back to a pair of the oxygen dangling bond and ${\mathrm{O}}^{0}$ (quantum yield: $\ensuremath{\sim}0.1$). These findings suggest that…
<title>Computer modeling of point defects, polarons, excitons, and surfaces in perovskite ferroelectrics</title>
2003
We review results of our recent large-scale computer simulations of 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 and defect-induced electron density redistribution. The majority of results are obtained using the quantum chemical method of the intermediate neglect of differential overlap (INDO) based on the Hartree-Frock formalism. The main findings are compared with results of ab initio Density Functional Theory (FP-LMTO) first-principles calculations. The results of the electronic structure calculations for different…
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…