Ab initio study of rumpled relaxation and core-level shift of barium titanate surface

The rumpled relaxation and the core-level shift of full-relaxed BaTiO₃ (0 0 1) surface have been investigated by first-principles calculation. Based on the work function and the electric-field gradient, the right size of vacuum and the slab have been evaluated. The large displacements of ions deviated from their crystalline sites to lead to the formation of the surface rumples have been found. Some fully occupied surface oxygen p states at the top M point of the valance band and the empty surface titanium d states at the edge of the bulk conduction band are observed on the TiO₂-terminated surface. In contrast, on the BaO-terminated surface, two different core levels of the Ba 5p states shifted about 1.29 eV are induced by the bulk perovskite Ba atoms and the relaxation of surface Ba atoms, respectively. Our calculations are consistent with the experimental data.     

Ionisation energy,electron affinity,and mass spectral decomposition mechanisms of RDX isomers upon electron attachment and electron ionisation

ABSTRACT

The structures, ionisation energies (IE), and electron affinities (EA) of 1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazacyclohexane (RDX) isomers upon loss and gain of an electron were calculated using density functional theory (DFT) methods. The adiabatic electron affinities (EA_ad) range from 1 to 2 eV. The vertical detachment energies are between 1.3 and 4.0 eV. The adiabatic ionisation energies (IE_ad) are in the 9.9–10.2 eV range. The vertical ionisation energies are in the 10.4–10.9 eV range. It is shown that NO₂^?/NO₂ loss would be common in anions and cations, respectively. Isomerisation and N—N bond dissociation accompany cation and anion formation, respectively. The suggested mass spectral fragmentation products for the cations along the S₀ surface are 84, 130, and 176 amu, in agreement with earlier mass spectrometry studies.     

Electronic states induced by surface defects on GaSb(110)

Electronic state calculations for point defects on the GaSb(110) surface are presented using a cluster, in order to indicate theoretically the usefulness of the defect model as a mechanism of the Fermi level pinning in Schottky barriers. The results demonstrate that the presence of atomic Ga at surface Sb vacancy sites in addition to surface Ga vacancies gives electronic states localized near the top of the valence band which can be responsible for the pinning observed experimentally.     

Electronic excitations during grazing scattering of hydrogen atoms on KI(001) and LiF(001) surfaces

The energy loss of hydrogen atoms with energies of 400 eV and 1 keV is studied in coincidence with the number of emitted electrons during grazing scattering from atomically clean and flat KI(001) and LiF(001) surfaces. The energy loss spectra for specific numbers of emitted electrons are analyzed in terms of a binary interaction model based on the formation of transient negative ions via local capture of valence band electrons from anion sites. Based on computer simulations we derive for this interaction scenario probabilities for the production of surface excitons, for electron loss to the conduction band of KI, for emission of electrons, and for formation of negative hydrogen ions. The pronounced differences of data obtained for the two surfaces are attributed to the different electronic structures of KI and LiF.     

Valence band photoemission from in-situ grown GaAs(100)-c(4 × 4)

The electron structure of GaAs(100)-c(4 × 4) has been studied by means of angular-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy for photon energies (20–40) eV. The sample was prepared by molecular beam epitaxy in-situ at the BL41 beamline of the MAX I storage ring of the Max-lab in Lund. Photon energy variation helped in separating dispersing bulk features from nondispersing surface features in the energy distribution curves recorded at normal emission. Two sets of peaks were related to bulk transitions from the two topmost E(k _⊥) branches of the valence band of GaAs and one more set came from the surface state in the center of the 2D Brillouin zone. Good agreement was found between experimental bulk dispersion branches and theoretical calculations based on realistic final state dispersion. The surface state peak, hardly visible at 20 and 22 eV photon excitations, gets clearly enhanced at higher excitation energies. In contrast to earlier measurements of this kind, two major differences have been found: (i) clearly developed surface state peak just below the top of the v alence band, (ii) absence of a large peak in the electron energy distribution at around −6.5eV below the valence band top. Presented at the X-th Symposium on Suface Physics, Prague, Czech Republic, July 11–15, 2005.     

Cross section and resonance effects in photoemission from Sn-doped In2O3(111)

Photoemission spectra of Sn-doped In₂O₃(111) have been measured using a range of photon energies between 40 and 1300 eV. The intensity of structure at the bottom of the valence band associated with states of mixed Sn 5s/O 2p character increases with increasing photon energy relative to that of states of more dominantly O 2p character at the top of the valence band, as expected from one electron ionisation cross sections. In addition a pronounced resonance in the intensity of a weak conduction band feature is observed around the In 4p core threshold.     

Vacancies in a Si(111) thin film

We investigated the electronic structure of an ideal vacancy in the Si(111) thin film by using empirical tight binding method. The supercell model used in our calculations predicted vacancy related states in general agreement with previous works. For the vacancy near the surface, it is found that the bound state energies shift to higher energies as the vacancy moves toward the surface. At the surface, however, it was seen that the vacancy bound state mix with the dangling bond surface states. Considering energy locations in the bond gap, we propose that vacancies created in the surfaceregion may account for the peak (at about ～0.5 eV above the valence band edge) in the density of interface states observed at the interface of the Si-SiO₂ junction.     

The XPS valence band spectra of NbC

The x-ray photoemission valence band spectra of NbC have been measured and are compared with the x-ray emission spectra and with the results from band structure calculations. This comparison leads to a large enhancement of theC2 _p photoabsorption cross section (at=1,487 eV) compared to the value calculated for the free atom. The effect of the nonmetal vacancy in the valence band can be described very well with vacancy cluster calculations.     

Band structure of surface states and resonances for clean Cu(1 1 0) surface

We have used the layer KKR method to calculate the Shockley and Rydberg surface states and resonances for Cu(1 1 0) for a given model of the surface potentials. This method has not been used before to predict all of the surface band structure for the energy range from the bottom of the conduction band to ∼7 eV above the vacuum level. The previous methods that used only local electron interactions in ab initio calculations could not produce the Rydberg surface barrier bands while those relying on nearly-free-electron parameterisation of bands could not deal with d-bands.     

First-principles calculations on electronic structures of Fe-vacancy-codoped TiO2 anatase (1 0 1) surface

The electronic structures of Fe-doped TiO₂ anatase (1 0 1) surfaces have been investigated by all spin-polarized density functional theory (DFT) plane-wave pseudopotential method. The general gradient approximation (GGA)+U (Hubbard coefficient) method has been adopted to describe the exchange-correlation effects. Through the density functional calculations for the formation energies of various configurations, the complex of a substitutional Fe plus an O vacancy was found to form easily in the most range of O chemical potential. The calculated density of the states of the system of Fe-doped surface with a surface oxygen vacancy shows a band gap narrowing from 2.8 to 1.9 eV comparing with the pure surface due to the synergistic effects of surface Fe impurities with O vacancies. The system processes high visible light sensitivity and photocatalytic ability by decreasing extrinsic absorption energy. By comparing the partial DOS of some O and Ti atoms lying in the outermost and bottom layers of Fe-doped surfaces, it was found that the influence of Fe impurities on the electronic structure of the system is localized.     

Topologically induced surface electron state on Si(1 1 1) surfaces

First-principle electronic structure calculation reveals the appearance of a new class of surface state on hydrogenated and clean Si(1 1 1) surfaces. The states are found to exhibit different characteristics to conventional surface electron states in terms of the peculiar distribution of the wavefunction depending on the wavenumber. In addition, the state results in flat dispersion bands in a part of the surface Brillouin zone having energy of about 8 eV below the top of the valence band. An analytic expression based on the tight-binding approximation corroborates the surface electron state results from the delicate balance of the electron transfer among the atoms situated near the surface. The obtained results give a possible extension and generalization of the edge state in graphite ribbons with zigzag edges.     

Relaxation of (111) silicon surface atoms from studies of Si4H9 clusters

Self-consistent Hartree-Fock and generalized valence bond calculations have been performed on clusters modeling the (111) silicon surface. We find that the surface state is accurately described as a dangling bond surface orbital with 93% p character. We determined the optimum relaxation of the surface layer to be 0.08 Å toward the second layer. In the positive ion, the surface atom relaxes toward the second layer by an additional 0.30 Å and for the negative ion the surface atom moves toward the vacuum 0.25 Å. The vertical ionization potential was found to be 5.78 eV (experimental values are 5.6 – 5.9 eV) while the calculated adiabatic electron affinity is 3.02 eV.     

Theoretical descriptions of surface state photoelectron spectroscopy

Various approximations which are commonly used in describing photoemission from solids are reviewed. To analyze experimental spectra quantitatively recourse must be had to theoretical calculations of surface states. Over a valence band width of 10 eV these calculations can be accurate to less than 0.5 eV for an assumed atomic surface configuration. For many purposes photoemission spectra may yield more information on allowed atomic configurations than LEED (low-energy electron diffraction) for current levels of sophistication.     

Relaxation of (111) silicon surface atoms from studies of Si4H9 clusters

Self-consistent Hartree-Fock and generalized valence bond calculations have been performed on clusters modeling the (111) silicon surface. We find that the surface state is accurately described as a dangling bond surface orbital with 93% p character. We determined the optimum relaxation of the surface layer to be 0.08 Å toward the second layer. In the positive ion, the surface atom relaxes toward the second layer by an additional 0.30 Å, and for the negative ion the surface atom moves toward the vacuum 0.25 Å. The vertical ionization potential was found to be 5.78 eV (experimental values are 5.6 – 5.9 eV) while the calculated adiabatic electron affinity is 3.02 eV.     

Photoemission from valence bands of GaAs(001) grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Angle-resolved photoemission measurements for GaAs(001) prepared by MBE have been carried out using synchroton radiation. Observed bulk features in the spectra can be explained by a direct transition model using free-electron-like final states down to energies as low as 16 eV above the top of the valence bands. Spectral bulk valence band features can be distinguished from surface features by an appropriate choice of photon energies and polar angles. This is demonstrated using calculated valence bands.     

Ab initio calculation of correlation effects for the O 1s core electron binding energy in MgO

Wavefunction based ab initio embedded cluster calculations are employed to calculate the O 1s core electron binding energies (CEBEs) of bulk MgO and the MgO(001) surface. A quantum cluster consisting of 61 atoms in five layers and embedded in a large point charge field is used for bulk MgO, the cluster for the MgO(001) surface is chosen accordingly. The O 1s CEBEs are calculated at the Koopmans' theorem (KT) and ΔSCF levels and with inclusion of correlation effects by means of the MC-CEPA method (multi-configuration coupled electron pair approximation), which is an approximate multi-reference coupled cluster approach. The correlation contributions to the O 1s CEBE of the central O atom due to the Mg atoms in the first and the O atoms in the second coordination shell turned out to be additive to a large extent. Therefore, they could be evaluated in an incremental fashion by a series of smaller calculations, where only a few atoms are included in the correlation treatment rather than all atoms of the first coordination shells or of the full quantum cluster. This makes the calculations feasible, even if large basis sets are used. The final results for the O 1s CEBEs are 533.47 and 533.50 eV for bulk MgO and the MgO(001) surface, to which electron correlation contributes 0.77 and 0.70 eV, respectively.     

A density functional study of atomic hydrogen and oxygen chemisorption on the relaxed (0001) surface of double hexagonal close packed americium

Ab initio total energy calculations within the framework of density functional theory have been performed for atomic hydrogen and oxygen chemisorption on the (0001) surface of double hexagonal packed americium using a full-potential all-electron linearized augmented plane wave plus local orbitals method. Chemisorption energies were optimized with respect to the distance of the adatom from the relaxed surface for three adsorption sites, namely top, bridge, and hollow hcp sites, the adlayer structure corresponding to coverage of a 0.25 monolayer in all cases. Chemisorption energies were computed at the scalar-relativistic level (no spin-orbit coupling NSOC) and at the fully relativistic level (with spin-orbit coupling SOC). The two-fold bridge adsorption site was found to be the most stable site for O at both the NSOC and SOC theoretical levels with chemisorption energies of 8.204 eV and 8.368 eV respectively, while the three-fold hollow hcp adsorption site was found to be the most stable site for H with chemisorption energies of 3.136 eV at the NSOC level and 3.217 eV at the SOC level. The respective distances of the H and O adatoms from the surface were found to be 1.196 ?and 1.164 ?. Overall our calculations indicate that chemisorption energies in cases with SOC are slightly more stable than the cases with NSOC in the 0.049–0.238 eV range. The work functions and net magnetic moments respectively increased and decreased in all cases compared with the corresponding quantities of bare dhcp Am (0001) surface. The partial charges inside the muffin-tins, difference charge density distributions, and the local density of states have been used to analyze the Am-adatom bond interactions in detail. The implications of chemisorption on Am 5f electron localization-delocalization are also discussed.     

Electronic structure of PbI2 from photoelectron spectra and the exciton problem

The valence band density of states for PbI₂ is determined from X-ray and u.v. induced photoelectron spectra. It is shown that the band derived from Pb 6s states is at 8 eV binding energy and not at the top of the valence bands as suggested by band structure and charge density calculations. A rigid shift in the predominantly iodine 5p derived bands to lower binding energy brings the band structure calculations into essential agreement with experiment. Pb 5d core level binding energies determined here are used to derive core level exciton energies of 0.7 eV from published reflectivity spectra.     

Role of surface antisite defects in the formation of heterojunctions

Fermi level pinning positions were measured for Si overlayers on cleaved, n-type GaAs and GaP substrates. The observed positions are 0.73 ± 0.1 eV and 0.98 ± 0.1 eV above the top of the substrate valence band. Theoretical calculations of the surface antisite acceptor levels predict the same chemical trend on going from GaAs to GaP. This agreement and other arguments suggest an important role for surface defects in the formation of semiconductor heterojunctions.     

Quantum-well resonances and image states in the Ar/Cu(1 0 0) system

A theoretical study of the effect of an atomically thin rare gas layer on the dynamics of excited electronic states at metal surfaces is presented for the case of a few mono-layers of Ar on a Cu(1 0 0) surface. We develop a 3D-microscopic model with predictive capabilities of the interaction of an electron with an Ar layer physisorbed on a metal surface. It takes into account the 3D structure of the Ar layer as well as its dielectric character. The dynamics of the excited electron on the surface is treated within a wave-packet propagation approach. The calculations show that two different types of excited states are present at the Ar/Cu(1 0 0) surface. (i) Image states that are repelled into vacuum as compared to their position on clean Cu(1 0 0) surfaces, leading to a decrease of their binding energies and to an increase of their lifetimes. (ii) Quantum-well resonances, corresponding to quasi-stationary states localised inside the Ar layer; they are associated with the quantisation of the conduction band in the finite size Ar layer. The present results on image states nicely agree with very recent time-resolved two-photon-photo-emission experiments by Berthold, Feulner and Höfer.