The influence of short-range order on electronic properties of transition metals: I. Crystalline systems

Densities of states and electronic parameters related to superconductivity have been calculated for the transition metals Nb and Tc, representing the bulk materials by a finite cluster of atoms. The Schrödinger equation is solved for atomic potentials which have been obtained in a self-consistent band structure calculation. The results show that, in these systems, the electronic structure is determind predominantly by short-range order.     

The equivalent potential of water molecules for electronic structure of cysteine

In order to get more reliable electronic structure of protein in aqueous solution, it is necessary to construct a simple, easy-use equivalent potential of water molecules for protein's electronic structure calculation. The first-principles, all-electron, ab initio calculations have been performed to construct the equivalent potential of water molecules for the electronic structure of Cys. The process consists of three steps. First, the electronic structure of the cluster containing Cys and water molecules is calculated. Then, based on the structure, the electronic structure of Cys with the potential of water molecules is calculated using the self-consistent cluster-embedding method. Finally, the electronic structure of Cys with the potential of dipoles is calculated. The dipoles are adjusted so the electronic structure of Cys with the potential of dipoles is close to that of water molecules. The calculations show that the major effect of water molecules on Cys' electronic structure is lowering the occupied electronic states by about 0.032 Ry, and broadening energy gap by 16%. The effect of water molecules on the electronic structure of Cys can be simulated by dipoles potential.     

CH3OH/TiO2(110)界面的光电子能谱研究

Methanol/TiO₂(110) is a model system in the surface science study of photocatalysis where methanol is taken as a hole capture. However, the highest occupied molecular orbital of adsorbed methanol lies below the valence band maximum of TiO₂, preventing the hole transfer. To study the level alignment of this system, electronic structure of methanol covered TiO₂(110) surface has been measured by ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy and the molecular orbitals of adsorbed methanol have been clearly identified. The results indicate the weak interaction between methanol and TiO₂ substrate. The static electronic structure also suggests the mismatch of the energy levels. These static experiments have been performed without band gap excitation which is the prerequisite of a photocatalytic process. Future study of the transient electronic structure using time-resolved UPS has also been discussed.     

Engineering the electronic structure of graphene superlattices via Fermi velocity modulation

Graphene superlattices have attracted much research interest in the last years, since it is possible to manipulate the electronic properties of graphene in these structures. It has been verified that extra Dirac points appear in the electronic structure of the system. The electronic structure in the vicinity of these points has been studied for a gapless and gapped graphene superlattice and for a graphene superlattice with a spatially modulated energy gap. In each case a different behavior was obtained. In this work we show that via Fermi velocity engineering it is possible to tune the electronic properties of a graphene superlattice to match all the previous cases studied. We also obtained new features of the system never observed before, reveling that the electronic structure of graphene is very sensitive to the modulation of the Fermi velocity. The results obtained here are relevant for the development of novel graphene-based electronic devices.     

Magnetic properties of CrSb compounds with zinc-blende and wurtzite structures

The electronic structure and magnetic properties of Cr-Sb compounds with zinc-blende and wurtzite structure have been studied by means of the Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker (KKR) band structure method. The occurrence of a half-metallic behavior has been investigated for the bulk systems as a function of lattice parameter, as well as for thin films deposited on different substrates. In the latter case the influence of the surface and interface on the electronic structure is discussed in addition. To study magnetic order in the bulk and within the films, exchange coupling parameters have been calculated from first principles. They have been used for subsequent Monte Carlo simulations, based on a classical Heisenberg Hamiltonian, to obtain the Curie temperature.     

Simulation of water potential for the electronic structureof serine

First-principles, all-electron, \textit{ab initio} calculations have been performed to construct an equivalent water potential for the electronic structure of serine (Ser) in solution. The calculation is composed of three steps. The first step is to search for the configuration of the Ser + NH₂O system with a minimum energy. The second step is to calculate the electronic structure of Ser with the water molecule potential via the self-consistent cluster-embedding method (SCCE), based on the result obtained in the first step. The last step is to calculate the electronic structure of Ser with the dipole potential after replacing the water molecules with dipoles. The results show that the occupied states of Ser are raised by about 0.017~Ry on average due to the effect of water. The water effect can be successfully simulated by using the dipole potential. The obtained equivalent potential can be applied directly to the electronic structure calculation of protein in solution by using the SCCE method.     

Effect of the δ-shaped quantum well at the one-dimensional lattice boundary on properties of Tamm-type surface electronic states

The Tamm-type surface electronic states at the boundary of the one-dimensional structure with periodically potential profile have been theoretically studied under the condition that the δ-shaped quantum well is at this boundary. The properties of surface electronic states in such a structure have been compared with Tamm electronic states in the absence of a quantum well at the lattice boundary and with electronic states localized near the δ-shaped potential well deep in the lattice. In particular, it has been shown that the existence of the δ-shaped potential well at the lattice boundary facilitates a significant increase in the degree of localization of Tamm-type surface electronic states and makes possible the appearance of these states at arbitrarily small heights of lattice potential barriers.     

X-ray absorption investigation of the electronic structure of the CuI@SWCNT nanocomposite

The Cu 2p, I 3d, and C 1sX-ray absorption spectra of the CuI@SWCNT nanocomposite prepared by filling single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) with the CuI melt by the capillary technique have been measured with a high-energy resolution using the equipment of the Russian-German beamline at the BESSY electron storage ring. In order to characterize the electronic structure of the nanocomposite and possible changes in the atomic and electronic structures of CuI and SWCNTs in the CuI@SWCNT nanocomposite, the spectra obtained have been analyzed in the framework of the quasi-molecular approach by comparing with the spectra of the pristine (CuI and SWCNT) and reference (CuO) systems. It has been revealed that the encapsulation of the CuI compound inside SWCNTs is accompanied by changes in the electronic structure of CuI and SWCNTs due to the chemical interaction between the filler and carbon nanotubes and the change in the atomic structure of CuI.     

Electronic Structure of GdCuGe Intermetallic Compound

The electronic structure of GdCuGe intermetallic compound has been studied. Spin-polarized energy spectrum calculations have been performed by the band method with allowance for strong electron correlations in the 4f-shell of gadolinium ions. Antiferromagnetic ordering of GdCuGe at low temperatures has been obtained in a theoretical calculation, with the value of the effective magnetic moment of gadolinium ions reproduced in fair agreement with experimental data. The electronic density of states has been analyzed. An optical conductivity spectrum has been calculated for GdCuGe; it reveals specific features that are analogous to the ones discovered previously in the GdCuSi compound with a similar hexagonal structure.     

The electronic structure of cobalt phthalocyanine

The electronic structure and morphology of organic semiconducting cobalt-phtalocyanine (CoPc) films in situ prepared on the Au(001)-5×20 superstructure have been studied by a combination of experimental and theoretical work. The CoPc molecular film was characterized by photoemission spectroscopy (PES, valence band and core-level). The experimental results were simulated and have been explained in the framework of density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The C 1s and N 1s core level spectra were analyzed by taking into account the fact that both types of atoms have different nonequivalent positions in the molecule. And finally, the experimentally obtained electronic valence band structure of CoPc is in very good agreement with ab initio density of state results, allowing a detailed site-specific insight into the system.     

Effect of Ni and Co impurities on the electronic structure and magnetic properties of BCC iron

A theory of disordered binary alloys A_xB_1−x (A=Ni, Co; B=Fe; x0.06) is used to determine the changes in the electronic structure and magnetic properties of body centered cubic (BCC) iron induced by doping with nickel and cobalt impurities. This approximation is an extension of the cluster-Bethe lattice method, in which we incorporate electronic correlations, itinerant and localized nature of electrons 3d, and both long-range and short-range chemical correlations. The magnetism is described by means of a Hubbard Hamiltonian that in conjunction with Green's functions techniques is used to calculate local densities of electronic states. For it we take an atom in the real lattice and it is joined to a Bethe's lattice with like coordination number. The magnetic moments on sites occupied for A and B atoms are obtained self-consistently. Nickel and cobalt impurities in BCC iron can provide crucial information on the modification of the electronic band structure and magnetic moments from pure Fe. The results obtained are compared with those of both pure Fe and binary alloys of Co–Fe and Ni–Fe, which have been obtained by other authors using methods such as: first-principles electronic structure calculations using the layer Korringa–Kohn–Rostoker (KKR), the full-potential linearized augmented plane wave method, the KKR coherent potential approximation combined with the local-density functional method and by the tight-binding linear-muffin-tin orbitals method, obtained good agree. These results and other that recently we have published indicate to us that our methodology can be a new alternative for calculations of the electronic structure and magnetic properties of impurities and alloys of ferromagnetic transition metals.     

Electronic structure of epitaxial interfaces

Metal-semiconductor (Schottky barrier) and semiconductor-semiconductor (heterojunction) interfaces show rectifying barrier heights and band offsets, which are two key quantities required to optimize the performance of a device. A large number of models and empirical theories have been put forward by various workers in the field during the last 50 years. But a proper understanding of the microscopic origin of these quantities is still missing. In this article, our focus is mainly to present a unified framework for first principles investigation of the electronic structure of epitaxial interfaces, in which one of the constituents is a semiconductor. LMTO method is now a well established tool for self-consistent electronic structure calculations of solids within LDA. Such calculations, when performed on supercell geometries, are quite successful in predicting a wide range of interface specific electronic properties accurately and efficiently. We describe here the basic formalism of this LMTO-supercell approach in its various levels of sophistication and apply it to investigate the electronic structure of A- and B-type NiSi₂/Si(111) interface as a prototype metal-semiconductor system, and CaF₂/Si(111) interface as a prototype insulator-semiconductor system. These are a few of the most ideal lattice matched epitaxial interfaces whose atomic and electronic structures have been extensively studied using a wide range of experimental probes. We give here a glimpse of these experimental results and discuss the success as well as limitations of LDA calculations to achieve accuracies useful for the device physicists.     

The equivalent potential of water molecules for electronic structure of lysine

In order to get more reliable electronic structures of proteins in aqueous solution, it is necessary to construct a potential of water molecules for protein’s electronic structure calculation. The lysine is a hydrophilic amino acid. It is positively charged (Lys+) in neutral water solution. The first-principles, all-electron, ab initio calcula-tions, based on the density functional theory, have been performed to construct such an equivalent potential of water molecules for lysine (Lys+). The process consists of three parts. First, the electronic structure of the cluster containing Lys+ and water molecules is calculated. By adjusting the positions of water molecules, the geometric structure of the cluster having minimum total energy is determined. Then, based on the structure, the electronic structure of Lys+ with the potential of water molecules is calculated using the self-consistent cluster-embedding (SCCE) method. Finally, the electronic structure of Lys+ with the potential of dipoles is calculated. The dipoles are adjusted so that the electronic structure of Lys+ with the potential of dipoles is close to that of water molecules. Thus the equivalent potential of water molecules for the electronic structure of lysine is obtained. The major effect of water molecules on lysine’s electronic structure is raising the occupied eigenvalues about 0.5032 eV, and broadening energy gap 89%. The effect of water molecules on the electronic structure of lysine can be simulated by dipoles potential.     

All electron ab initio investigations of the electronic states of the FeC molecule

The low-lying electronic states of the molecule FeC have been investigated by performing all electron ab initio multi-configuration self-consistent-field (CASSCF) and multi reference configuration interaction (MRCI) calculations. The relativistic corrections for the one-electron Darwin contact term and the relativistic mass-velocity correction have been determined in perturbation calculations. The electronic structure of the FeC molecule is interpreted as antiferromagnetic couplings of the localized angular momenta of the ions and resulting in a triple bond in the valence bond sense. The electronic ground state is confirmed as being . The spectroscopic constants for the ground state and eleven excited states have been derived from the results of the MRCI calculations. The spectroscopic constants for the ground state have been determined as and ,and for the low-lying state as and . The values for the ground state agree well with the available experimental data. The FeC molecule is polar with charge transfer from Fe to C. The dipole moment has been determined as in the ground state and as 1.51 D in the state. From the results of the MRCI calculations the dissociation energy, , is determined as 2.79 eV, and D₀ as 2.74 eV. Received: 2 October 1998 / Received in final form: 30 March 1999     

Electronic and optical properties of BAs under pressure

The electronic and optical properties of boron arsenide (BAs) in the zinc-blende (ZB) and rock-salt (RS) phases have been studied by the density functional theory (DFT) method based on the generalized gradient approximation (GGA). Using the enthalpy-pressure data, the structural phase transition from ZB to RS is observed at 141 GPa. Our calculated electronic properties show that ZB-BAs is a semiconductor, whereas RS-BAs is a semi-metal. Calculations of the dielectric function and absorption coefficient have been performed for the energy range 0-30 eV. The dependence of pressure on band structure and optical spectra is also investigated. The results are compared with available theoretical and experimental data.     

The fluorescence and electronic structure of phenyl-substituted tetraazachlorin molecules

The effect of the addition of phenyl groups to pyrrole rings of tetraazachlorins, a new class of tetrapyrroles, on the photophysical properties and electronic structure of the molecules has been investigated by a complex of experimental and theoretical methods. Characteristics of fluorescence at 293 and 77 K have been determined for phenyl-substituted tetraazachlorins. The objects of this study include unsubstituted tetraazaporphine. The introduction of phenyl groups affords a marked increase in the fluorescence quantum yield. For tetraazaporphine and phenyl-substituted tetraazachlorins, fluorescence buildup occurs as the temperature is decreased from 293 to 77 K, but to a lesser extent than for tetraazachlorins having no phenyl groups, which were earlier studied by the authors. The fluorescence buildup mechanism is discussed. The singlet oxygen generation quantum yield has been determined for the tetrapyrroles examined. This characteristic increases upon tetrapyrrole is phenylation. The electronic structure and absorption spectra of unsubstituted porphine and chlorin, tetraazaporphine, tetraazachlorin, octaphenyltetraazaporphine, and tetramethylhexaphenyltetraazachlorin have been calculated by the INDO/Sm method (original modification of the INDO/S method) with molecular geometry optimization using DFT. The results of the quantum-chemical calculation of the absorption spectra are in good agreement with experimental data for transitions to the lowest excited electronic states Q _x (S ₁) and Q _y (S ₂).     

Synthesis and electronic structure of nitrogen-doped graphene

The crystalline and electronic structure of nitrogen-doped graphene (N-graphene) has been studied by photoelectron spectroscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy. Synthesis of N-graphene from triazine molecules on Ni(111) surface results in incorporation into graphene of nitrogen atoms primarily in the pyridinic configuration. It has been found that inclusions of nitrogen enhance significantly thermal stability of graphene on nickel. An analysis of the electronic structure of N-graphene intercalated by gold atoms has revealed that the pyridinic nitrogen culminates in weak p-type doping, in full agreement with theoretical predictions. Subsequent thermal treatment makes possible conversion of the major part of nitrogen atoms into the substitutional configuration, which involves n-type doping. It has been shown that the crystalline structure of the N graphene thus obtained reveals local distortions presumably caused by inhomogeneous distribution of impurities in the layer. The results obtained have demonstrated a promising application potential of this approach for development of electronic devices based on graphene with controllable type of conduction and carrier concentration.