Relaxation of the (1 1 1) surface of δ-Pu and effects on atomic adsorption: An ab initio study

The computational formalism of the full-potential all-electron linearized augmented plane wave plus local orbitals (FP-LAPW+lo) method has been employed to study the relaxation of the δ-Pu(1 1 1) surface and the consequent effects for atomic adsorption of C, N, and O atoms on this surface. The underlying theoretical principle is the generalized gradient approximation to density functional theory (GGA-DFT) and the surface was modeled by a five-layer slab with a (2×2) surface unit cell. Upon relaxation of the slab, the interlayer separation between the surface and the subsurface layers expanded by 7.1% with respect to the bulk interlayer separation, while the separation between the subsurface and central layers expanded by 0.4%. To study adsorption on the surface, the adatoms were allowed to approach the surface at four high symmetry adsorption sites, namely, the top, bridge, hollow FCC, and hollow HCP sites, the adlayer structure corresponding to a coverage of 0.25 of a monolayer in all cases. The hollow FCC adsorption site was found to be the most stable site for C and N with chemisorption energies of 6.420 and 6.549 eV, respectively, while the hollow HCP adsorption site was found to be the most stable site for O with a chemisorption energy of 7.858 eV. The respective distances of the C, N, and O adatoms from the surface were found to be 1.22, 1.09, and 1.22 Å. The work function and net magnetic moments, respectively, increased and decreased in all cases upon chemisorption compared with the bare δ-Pu(1 1 1) surface. The electronic structure of the interactions between the adsorbates and the substrate is discussed in detail.