X-ray spectroscopic techniques are powerful tools for electronic structure investigations of transition metal oxides

Transition metal oxides display uniquely rich physics. Phenomena like superconductivity or colossal magneto resistance are related to collective phase transitions as consequence of a fascinating interplay between the charge, orbital and spin degree of freedom with the crystal lattice. Understanding the underlying electronic properties of transition metal oxides is one major topic in nowadays condensed matter physics. In this paper the investigation of a number of transition metal oxides, with emphasis to ferroelectric and magnetic compounds, by means of different X-ray spectroscopic techniques is presented. X-ray spectroscopic techniques offer unique capabilities for the analysis of spatial distribution of the electron density and chemical bonding. A lot of results shown in this paper are compared to different theoretical electronic structure calculations, i.e. ab initio band structure calculations as well as full multiplet calculations.     

Origin of magnetic interactions and their influence on the structural properties of Ni2MnGa and related compounds

In this work, we perform first-principles DFT calculations to investigate the interplay between magnetic and structural properties in Ni(2)MnGa. We demonstrate that the relative stability of austenite (cubic) and non-modulated martensite (tetragonal) phases depends critically on the magnetic interactions between Mn atoms. While standard approximate DFT functionals stabilize the latter phase, a more accurate treatment of electronic localization and magnetism, obtained with DFT+U, suppresses the non-modulated tetragonal structure for the stoichiometric compound, in better agreement with experiments. We show that the Anderson impurity model, with Mn atoms treated as magnetic impurities, can explain this observation and that the fine balance between super-exchange RKKY type interactions mediated by Ni d and Ga p orbitals determines the equilibrium structure of the crystal. The Anderson model is also demonstrated to capture the effect of the number of valence electrons per unit cell on the structural properties, often used as an empirical parameter to tune the behavior of Ni(2)MnGa based alloys. Finally, we show that off-stoichiometric compositions with excess Mn promote transitions to a non-modulated tetragonal structure, in agreement with experiments.     

Projection technique for population analysis of atomic orbitals in crystals

The one-electron density matrix of a crystal in the basis set of localized orbitals is calculated using two variants of the projection technique, namely, the projection of crystal orbitals onto the space of atomic orbitals (technique A) and the projection of atomic functions onto the space of crystal orbitals (technique B). A comparative analysis of the one-electron density matrices thus obtained is carried out, and a simplified version of technique B is proposed to avoid cumbersome calculations with a large number of vacant crystal orbitals. Both techniques are used to calculate the local characteristics of the electronic structure (atomic charges, atomic covalences, bond orders) for a number of crystals (Si, SiC, GaAs, MgO, cubic BN, TiO₂ rutile) in the framework of the density-functional theory within the generalized gradient approximation in the plane wave basis set with the norm-conserving pseudopotentials. It is revealed that both variants of the projection technique lead to close local characteristics of the electronic structure. The local characteristics of the electronic structure of the TiO₂ crystal with a rutile structure are determined by the projection technique and by constructing the Wannier-type atomic functions (WTAF) in the minimal valence basis set in the framework of the variational method with the crystal orbitals calculated in the linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) approximation. It is demonstrated that, although the basis sets used for calculating the crystal orbitals differ significantly (plane waves in the projection technique, LCAO in the WTAF method), the local characteristics of the electronic structure are in good agreement.     

The influence of hydrogen impurities on the atomic and electronic structures of carbyne crystals

An ab initio DFT study of atomic and electronic structure of carbyne crystals was carried out. The influence of hydrogen impurities on carbyne structure was investigated. Calculations with atomic relaxations showed that carbon chains in the carbyne crystal structure are bow-like curved; free-energy calculations showed that the most probable lengths of those chains are four and six atoms, which is in a good agreement with experiments. Carbyne-crystal electronic-structure analysis showed that there is a small gap of 0.09 eV near the Fermi level in four-atomic carbyne, while there is no such gap in six-atomic carbyne. In studying of the hydrogen impurity influence on the atomic and electronic structure of carbyne crystals, hydrogen atoms were embedded in two directions: across and along carbon chains in the crystal. As a result we found that the crystal structure is not distorted in the case of hydrogen embedded across the chains, while the type of bonding between carbon atoms in carbon chains in the carbyne crystal structure depended on the impurity concentration. The crystal structure was distorted when hydrogen was embedded along the chains. The concentration of impurities influences the conductivity of a carbyne crystal.     

Optimization of the calculations of the electronic structure of carbon nanotubes

A method is proposed for calculating the electronic structure and physical properties (in particular, Young’s modulus) of nanotubes, including single-walled carbon nanotubes. This method explicitly accounts for the periodic boundary conditions for the geometric structure of nanotubes and makes it possible to decrease considerably (by a factor of 10–10³) the time needed to calculate the electronic structure with minimum error. In essence, the proposed method consists in changing the geometry of the structure by partitioning nanotubes into sectors with the introduction of the appropriate boundary conditions. As a result, it becomes possible to reduce substantially the size of the unit cell of the nanotube in two dimensions, so that the number of atoms in a new unit cell of the modified nanotube is smaller than the number of atoms in the initial unit cell by a factor equal to an integral number. A decrease in the unit cell size and the corresponding decrease in the number of atoms provide a means for drastically reducing the computational time, which, in turn, substantially decreases with an increase in the degree of partition, especially for nanotubes with large diameters. The results of the calculations performed for carbon and non-carbon (boron nitride) nanotubes demonstrate that the electronic structures, densities of states, and Young’s moduli determined within the proposed approach differ insignificantly from those obtained by conventional computational methods.     

锂离子电池正极材料Li2FeSiO4的电子结构与输运特性

采用基于密度泛函理论第一性原理方法, 研究了对称性为Pmn2₁的正交结构聚阴离子型硅酸盐Li₂FeSiO₄及其相关脱锂相LiFeSiO₄的电子结构, 并进一步采用玻尔兹曼理论对其输运性质进行计算. 电荷密度分析表明, 由于强Si–O共价键的存在使Li₂FeSiO₄晶体结构在嵌脱锂过程中始终保持稳定, 体积变化率只有2.7%. 能带结构与态密度计算结果表明, 费米能级附近的电子结构主要受Fe-d轨道中电子的影响, Li₂FeSiO₄ 的带隙宽度明显小于LiFeSiO₄, 说明前者的电子输运能力优于后者. 输运性质计算表明, 电导率在300–800 K时对温度的变化并不敏感, 同时也证明了Li₂FeSiO₄晶体的电导率大于LiFeSiO₄晶体, 与能带和态密度分析结论一致.     

Discovering Noncritical Organization: Statistical Mechanical,Information Theoretic,and Computational Views of Patterns in One-Dimensional Spin Systems

We compare and contrast three different, but complementary views of “structure” and “pattern” in spatial processes. For definiteness and analytical clarity, we apply all three approaches to the simplest class of spatial processes: one-dimensional Ising spin systems with finite-range interactions. These noncritical systems are well-suited for this study since the change in structure as a function of system parameters is more subtle than that found in critical systems where, at a phase transition, many observables diverge, thereby making the detection of change in structure obvious. This survey demonstrates that the measures of pattern from information theory and computational mechanics differ from known thermodynamic and statistical mechanical functions. Moreover, they capture important structural features that are otherwise missed. In particular, a type of mutual information called the excess entropy—an information theoretic measure of memory—serves to detect ordered, low entropy density patterns. It is superior in several respects to other functions used to probe structure, such as magnetization and structure factors. ϵ-Machines—the main objects of computational mechanics—are seen to be the most direct approach to revealing the (group and semigroup) symmetries possessed by the spatial patterns and to estimating the minimum amount of memory required to reproduce the configuration ensemble, a quantity known as the statistical complexity. Finally, we argue that the information theoretic and computational mechanical analyses of spatial patterns capture the intrinsic computational capabilities embedded in spin systems—how they store, transmit, and manipulate configurational information to produce spatial structure.     

Quantum mechanical ab initio calculations of the structural,electronic and optical properties of bulk gold nitrides

In the present work, the atomic and the electronic structures of Au₃N, AuN and AuN₂ are investigated using first-principles density-functional theory (DFT). We studied cohesive energy vs. volume data for a wide range of possible structures of these nitrides. Obtained data were fitted to a Birch-Murnaghan third-order equation of state (EOS) so as to identify the most likely candidates for the true crystal structure in this subset of the infinite parameter space, and to determine their equilibrium structural parameters. The analysis of the electronic properties was achieved by the calculations of the band structure and the total and partial density of states (DOS). Some possible pressure-induced structural phase transitions have been pointed out. Further, we carried out GW₀ calculations within the random-phase approximation (RPA) to the dielectric tensor to investigate the optical spectra of the experimentally suggested modification: Au₃N(D0₉). Obtained results are compared with experiment and with some available previous calculations.     

Why is polonium simple cubic and so highly anisotropic?

Using the state-of-the-art ab initio electronic structure calculations, we explain why alpha-Po prefers the simple cubic structure (it is due to the relativistic mass-velocity and Darwin terms), elucidate its extreme elastic anisotropy (this is an intrinsic property of the simple cubic crystal structure), and predict a transformation to a mixture of two trigonal structures at pressures of 1-3 GPa.     

块状NiSe2的电学，光学和热力学性质的理论研究

在密度泛函理论框架下通过平面波赝势的第一原理计算,研究了块体材料NiSe2的电学,光学和热力学性质.根据计算得到的立方晶体（空间群：PM3,No：200）的能量-体积曲线,获得了最低能量的最优结构.基于能带结构和电子态密度结构计算的结果表明,NiSe2为半金属.当有电磁波穿过块体NiSe2时,通过非自洽计算,分析介电函数的实部和虚部得到了能量损失函数谱,反射率,吸收谱,折射系数和消光系数.在准谐波德拜模型的基础上,我们还研究了NiSe2的热力学性质.     

Structure and dynamics of cationic van-der-Waals clusters

The geometric structure and bonding properties of medium-sized ArnH+ clusters (n = 2–35), in which a proton is wrapped up in a number of Ar atoms, are investigated by applying a diatomics-in-molecules (DIM) model with ab-initio input data generated by means of multi-reference configuration-interaction (MRCI) computations. For the smaller complexes, n = 2–7, cross-checking calculations employing the coupled-cluster approach (CCSD) with the same one-electron atomic basis set as for the input data calculations (aug-cc-pVTZ from Dunning), show good agreement thus justifying the extension of the DIM study to larger n. Local minima of the multi-dimensional potential-energy surfaces (PES) are determined by combining a Monte-Carlo sampling followed, for each generated point, by a steepest-descent optimization procedure. For the electronic ground state of the ArnH+ clusters, the global minimum (corresponding to the most stable structure of the cluster) as well as secondary minima are found and analyzed. The structural and energetic data obtained reveal the building-up regularities for the most stable structures and make it possible to formulate a simple increment scheme. The low-lying excited states are also calculated by the DIM approach; they all turn out to be globally repulsive.     

A quantum reactive scattering perspective on electronic nonadiabaticity

Based on quantum reactive-scattering theory, we propose a method for studying the electronic nonadiabaticity in collision processes involving electron-ion rearrangements. We investigate the state-to-state transition probability for electron-ion rearrangements with two comparable approaches. In the first approach the information of the electron is only contained in the ground-state Born-Oppenheimer potential-energy surface, which is the starting point of common reactive-scattering calculations. In the second approach, the electron is explicitly taken into account and included in the calculations at the same level as the ions. Hence, the deviation in the results between the two approaches directly reflects the electronic nonadiabaticity during the collision process. To illustrate the method, we apply it to the well-known proton-transfer model of Shin and Metiu, generalized in order to allow for reactive scattering channels. We show that our explicit electron approach is able to capture electronic nonadiabaticity and the renormalization of the reaction barrier near the classical turning points of the potential in nuclear configuration space. In contrast, system properties near the equilibrium geometry of the asymptotic scattering channels are hardly affected by electronic nonadiabatic effects. We also present an analytical expression for the transition amplitude of the asymmetric proton-transfer model based on the direct evaluation of integrals over the involved Airy functions.     

Structural, spectroscopic and crystal field analyses of Ni2+ and?Co2+ doped Zn2SiO4 powders

In this paper we presented structural and spectroscopic study of zinc silicate powder samples doped with divalent nickel and cobalt ions. Results of the Rietveld structural refinement, combined with optical spectroscopic study and theoretical crystal field calculations, are presented and discussed. X-ray diffraction studies were performed to establish reliable structure of the doped samples; in this way the interionic distances and chemical bond angles in Zn₂SiO₄:Co²⁺ and Zn₂SiO₄:Ni²⁺ were calculated and are reported for the first time. The room temperature reflection spectra of the prepared samples were measured in a spectral region from 4000 to 50000 cm^?1. The exchange charge model of crystal field has been applied to analyze the experimental spectra and assign all observed details in the spectra to the corresponding electronic transitions between the Co²⁺ and Ni²⁺ crystal field energy levels. The only input information for the model calculation was the experimentally obtained structural data, which were used for the calculations of the crystal field parameters with subsequent diagonalization of the crystal field Hamiltonian for both ions. Agreement between the calculated and experimentally detected energy levels of impurity ions was good. On the basis of the crystallographic and crystal field studies it was established that there exists a systematic trend of preferential occupation of one out of two possible crystallographic sites (namely, Zn2) for both impurity ions.     

Dynamical structure, bonding, and thermodynamics of the superionic sublattice in alpha-AgI

We characterize the superionic phase transition and the lattice and electronic structures of the archetypal type-I superionic conductor alpha-AgI using extensive first-principles molecular dynamics calculations. We find that superionicity is signaled by a phase transition of the silver ions alone. In the superionic phase, the first silver shell surrounding an iodine displays a distinct dynamical structure that would escape a time-averaged characterization, and we capture this structure in a set of ordering rules. The electronic structure demonstrates a unique chemical signature of the weakest-bound silver in the first shell, which in turn is most likely to diffuse. Silver diffusion decreases upon melting, pointing to an unusual entropic contribution to the stability of the superionic phase.     

First-principles study of new half Heusler for optoelectronic applications

We report investigations of the structural, electronic and optical properties of 36 half-Heusler compounds in comparison with II–VI semiconductors using the first-principles calculations based on the density functional theory. In this work, we demonstrate the similarity in the electronic structure of these materials with that of II–VI semiconductors through the analysis of lattice parameters, band gaps and static dielectric constants at ambient pressure. The evolution of these properties under pressure is also necessary to predict new candidates for the optoelectronic devices.     

Effect of electron and hole doping on magnetic properties of zinc-blende SrC and BaC from first principles

First-principles density functional calculations are employed to investigate the effect of electron and hole doping on the equilibrium geometric, magnetic and electronic structure of hypothetical SrC and BaC compounds with the zinc-blende (ZB) crystal structure. Magnetic moments, lattice constants and orbital populations are calculated as a function of doping level. The calculations predict that the geometric, magnetic properties and electronic structure of these compounds are changed drastically upon electron and hole doping.     

利用电子结构数据拟合H2分子的电子壳模型势函数参数

电子壳模型势函数在离子晶体的原子级计算机模拟中有广泛应用,其势参数主要通过拟合晶体的实验数据或电子结构数据得到.提出了通过拟合双原子分子的量子化学从头计算电子结构数据来获得该势函数的方法,并由H2分子的电子结构数据建立了H原子间的电子壳模型势函数.此外,还应用该势函数对H+2分子离子进行了计算.该势函数拟合方案更适合于共价键型的分子.