Energy gaps and half-metallicity in β-graphyne nanoribbons

We investigate the energy gaps and half-metallicity of the zigzag-edged β-graphyne nanoribbons via a tight-binding approach. In the presence of on-site Coulomb repulsion and proper transverse electric field strengths, the nanoribbons are forced into a half-metallic state by the electric field. A phase transition from half-metal to insulator is realized by changing the electric field or Coulomb potential. Both the electric field and Coulomb repulsion can open direct band gaps, resulting in a metal-insulator phase transition. The band gaps oscillate with the electric field, contrary to linear change with the Coulomb potential.     

Lattice thermal conductivity of δ-graphyne — A molecular dynamics study

Thermal conductivity of δ-graphyne was investigated using reverse non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. The dependence of the thermal conductivities with the temperature, acetylenic linkages, and external strain were explained by the phonon density of states. Our simulations revealed that as the temperature increased, the thermal conductivity of graphene first increased and then decreased, whereas that of δ-graphyne monotonically decreased. Owing to the presence of the acetylenic linkages, a significant reduction was found in the thermal conductivity of δ-graphyne, which resulted in a phonon vibration mismatch or weakened coupling. Moreover, the temperature profile changed from mono linear to the ladder the number of acetylenic linkages increased. These results play a guidance role in the design and application of thermoelectrics devices using 2D carbon materials.     

Relativistic effects on the structural and transport properties of III–V compounds: A first-principles study

We have performed ab initio self-consistent calculations based on the full potential linear augmented plane-wave method (FP-LAPW) with the local density approximation (LDA) and the Generalised Gradient Approximation (GGA) to investigate the relativistic effects, on the structural, and transport properties of III–V compounds. We found that the stabilisation (destabilisation) of s, p^∗(p,d) orbital energies (i) reduces the lattice parameters of III–V compounds, considerably reduces the band gaps of the III–V compounds, (ii) reduces the effective masse, and (iii) induces strong spin orbit splitting of heavier III–V compounds. Furthermore we circumvent the negative gap problem by combining non relativistic and Engel–Vosko approximations. These approaches open the gap of the most III–V compounds, and leads to a realistic band structure.     

Intrinsic spin–orbit interaction in carbon nanotubes and curved nanoribbons

We present a theoretical study of spin–orbit interaction effects on single wall carbon nanotubes and curved graphene nanoribbons by means of a realistic multiorbital tight-binding model, which takes into account the full symmetry of the honeycomb lattice. Several effects relevant to spin–orbit interaction, namely, the importance of chirality, curvature, and a family-dependent anisotropic conduction and valence band splitting are identified. We show that chiral nanotubes and nanoribbons exhibit spin-split states. Curvature-induced orbital hybridization is crucial to understand the experimentally observed anisotropic spin–orbit splittings in carbon nanotubes. In fact, spin–orbit interaction is important in curved graphene nanoribbons, since the induced spin-splitting on the edge states gives rise to spin-filtered states.     

Methane adsorption on graphite（0001） films： A first-principles study

Using first-principles methods, we have systematically investigated the electronic density of states, work function, and adsorption energy of the methane molecule adsorbed on graphite(0001) films. The surface energy and the interlayer relaxation of the clean graphite(0001) as a function of the thickness of the film were also studied. The results show that the interlayer relaxation is small due to the weak interaction between the neighboring layers. The one-fold top site is found most favourable on substrate for methane with the adsorption energy of 133 meV. For the adsorption with different adsorption heights above the graphite film with four layers, the methane is found to prefer to appear at about 3.21 A above the graphite. We also noted that the adsorption energy does not dependent much on the thickness of the graphite films. The work function is enhanced slightly by adsorption of methane due to the slight charge transfer from the graphite surface to the methane molecule.     

Investigation on the electronic transport properties of MgS nanotube based molecular devices – a first-principles study

The electronic transport properties of pure MgS nanotube based molecular devices, Mn-substituted nanotubes and Se-substituted nanotubes are investigated using density functional theory. The state of the art of this work is to study the transport properties of MgS nanotubes with substitution impurities across electrodes. The electronic transport properties are discussed in terms of device density of states and transmission spectrum of MgS nanotubes. The effects of Mn substitution and Se substitution in nanotubes are studied. The major contribution to density of states arises only from p orbitals in MgS nanotubes. The substitution effect and bias voltages also have influence in the density of states. The transmission spectrum provides information about the transmission of electrons along the nanotube. The information provided in this work gives a clear vision to fine-tune MgS nanostructures with improved transport property in nanoelectronic device fabrication.     

A study on continuous Chinese speech recognition based on stochastic trajectory models

I.IntroductionContinuousspeechrecognitionisadifficultresearchtask.AfterwidelytakingadvantageofhiddenMarkovmodels(HMMs),ithasmadeconsiderableheadway.Inmostofthecurrentcontinuousspeechrecognitionsystems,HMMisusedtosetupstatisticmodelsforacousticunits(suchasword,syllable,phone,senone).HMMaccountsforspeakingratebystatetransi-tionprobabilitiesandacousticvariabilitybystate-dependentobservationprobabilitydensities.Tomakecomputationefficientandtrainingrealizable,threeassumptionsarenecessarytobeco…     

Effects of acceptor–donor complexes on electronic structure properties in co-doped TiO2: A first-principles study

We theoretically investigate the doping effects induced by impurity complexes on the electronic structures of anatase TiO₂ based on the density functional theory. Mono-doping and co-doping effects are discussed separately. The results show that the impurity doping can make the band-edges shift. The induced defect levels in the band gaps by impurity doping reduce the band gap predominantly. The compensated acceptor–donor pairs in the co-doped TiO₂ will improve the photoelectrochemical activity. From the calculations, it is also found that (S+Zr)-co-doped TiO₂ has the ideal band gap and band edge, at the same time, the binding energy is higher than other systems, so (S+Zr)-co-doping in TiO₂ is more promise in photoelectrochemical experiments.     

Ag–Cu alloy surfaces in an oxidizing environment: A first-principles study

Recent experiments on model catalysts have shown that Ag–Cu alloys have improved selectivity with respect to pure silver for ethylene epoxidation. In this paper, we review our first-principles investigations on the (1 1 1) surface of this alloy and present new findings on other low index surfaces. We find that, for every surface orientation, the presence of oxygen leads to copper segregation to the surface. Considering the alloy to be in equilibrium with an oxygen atmosphere and accounting for the effect of temperature and pressure, we compute the surface free energy and study the stability of several surface structures. Investigating the dependence of the surface free energy on the surface composition, we construct the phase diagram of the alloy for every surface orientation. Around the temperature, pressure and composition of interest for practical applications, we find that a limited number of structures can be present, including a thin layer of copper oxide on top of the silver surface and copper-free structures. Different surface orientations show a very similar behavior and in particular a single layer with CuO stoichiometry, significantly distorted when compared to a layer of bulk CuO, has a wide range of stability for all orientations. Our results are consistent with, and help explain, recent experimental measurements.     

A Density Functional Study of Atomic Carbon Adsorption on δ-Pu（111） Surface

Adsorption of atomic carbon on 6-Pu（111） surface is investigated systematically using density functional theory with RPBE functional. The adsorption energies, adsorption structures, Mulliken population, work functions, layer and projected density of states are calculated in wide ranges of coverage, which have never been studied before as far as we know. It is found that the hcp-hollow sites is the energetically favorable site for all the coverage range considered. The repulsive interaction is identified, and the adsorption energy decreases with the coverage, while work function increases linearly with the coverage. It is found that the C-Pu interaction is very strong due to the hybridization between the C 2p states and the Pu 5 f , Pu 6p,Pu 6d states of topmost layer Plutonium atoms.     

Density functional study of α-graphyne derivatives: Energetic stability,atomic and electronic structure

The energetic stability, atomic and electronic structures of α-graphyne and its derivatives (α-GYs) with extended carbon chains were investigated by density functional (DF) calculations in this work. The studied α-GYs consist of hexagon carbon rings sharing their edges with carbon atoms N=1–10. The structure and energy analyses show that α-GYs with even-numbered carbon chains have alternating single and triple C–C bonds (polyyne), energetically more stable than those with odd-numbered carbon chains possessing continuous double C–C bonds (polycumulene). The calculated electronic structures indicate that α-GYs can be either metallic (odd N) or semiconductive (even N) depending on the parity of number of atoms on hexagon edges despite the edge length. The semiconducting α-graphyne derivatives are found to possess Dirac cones (DC) with small direct band gaps 2–40 meV and large electron velocities 0.554×10⁶–0.671×10⁶ m/s, 70–80% of that of graphene. Our DF studies suggest that introducing sp carbon atoms into the hexagon edges of graphene opens up an avenue to switch between metallic and DC electronic structures via tuning the parity of the number of hexagon edge atoms.     

Optical binding forces between plasmonic nanocubes： A numerical study based on discrete-dipole approximation Optical binding forces between plasmonic nanocubes： A numerical study based on discrete-dipole approximationOptical binding forces between plasmonic nanocubes： A numerical study based on discrete-dipole approximation

Plasmonic nanocubes are ideal candidates in realizing controllable reflectance surfaces, unidirectional nanoantennas and other plasmon-associated applications. In this work, we perform full-wave calculations of the optical forces in three- dimensional gold nanocube dimers. For a fixed center-to-center separation, the rotation of the plasmonic nanocube leads to a slight shift of the plasmonic resonance wavelength and a strong change in the optical binding forces. The effective gap and the near field distribution between the two nanocubes are shown to be crucial to this force variation. We further find that the optical binding force is dominated by the scattering process while the optical forces in the wavevector direction are affected by both scattering and absorption, making the former relatively more sensitive to the rotation of （an effective gap between） the nanocubes. Our results would be useful for building all-optically controllable meta-surfaces.     

Electronic structures and magnetism of Fe nanowires on Cu（001） and Ag（O01）： A first-principles study

The electronic structures and magnetism of Fe nanowires along the [110] direction on Cu（001） and Ag（001） [Fe（nw）/Cu（001） and Fe（nw）/Ag（001）] are investigated by using the all-electron full-potential linearized augmented plane wave method in the generalized gradient approximation. It is found that the magnetic moment of Fe atom for the Fe（nw）/Cu（001） is 2.99#B, which is slightly smaller than that （3.02μB） for the Fe（nw）/Ag（001） but much larger than that （2.22μB） for the bcc iron. The great enhancement of magnetic moment in the Fe nanowires can be explained by the Fe d-band narrowing and enhancement of the spin-splitting due to a reduction in coordination number, From the calculated spin-polarized layer-projected density of states, it is found that the Fe 3d-states are strongly hybridized with the adjacent Cu 3d-states in the Fe（nw）/Cu（001）, and there exists a strong hybridization between the Fe sp-and the adjacent Ag 4d-states in the Fe（nw）/Ag（001）.     

A comparative study of conventional type II and inverted core–shell nanostructures based on CdSe and ZnS

The objective of this work is to investigate structural, morphological and optical properties of conventional CdSe/ZnS core–shell and inverted ZnS/CdSe core–shell nanostructures for opto-electronic device applications. For this purpose both nanostructures were synthesized using chemical bath deposition technique in thin film form. The structural properties were studied using X-ray diffraction technique with Rietveld refinement and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The surface morphology of synthesized thin film was illustrated in the form 2D and 3D images using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The optical properties were explained using UV–Vis absorption spectroscopy and photo luminescence (PL) spectroscopy in in situ monitoring process. A comparison of estimated particle size from XRD, high resolution AFM and TEM images was resulted in good agreement as 2.1, 2.4 and 2.1 nm respectively for conventional CdSe/ZnS core–shell and as 2.5, 2.5 and 2.2 nm respectively for inverted ZnS/CdSe core–shell nanostructures.     

Electronic structures and coronene on Ru（0001）： vibrational properties of first-principles study

We calculate the configurations,electronic structures,vibrational properties at the coronene/Ru(0001) interface,and adsorption of a single Pt atom on coronene/Ru(0001) based on density functional theory calculations.The geometric structures and electronic structures of the coronene on Ru(0001) are compared with those of the graphene/Ru(0001).The results show that the coronene/Ru(0001) can be a simplified model system used to describe the interaction between graphene and ruthenium.Further calculations of the vibrational properties of coronene molecule adsorbed on Ru(0001) suggest that the phonon properties of differently corrugated regions of graphene on Ru(0001) are different.This model system is also used to investigate the selective adsorption of Pt atoms on graphene/Ru(0001).The configurations of Pt on coronene/Ru(0001) with the lowest binding energy give clues to explain the experimental observation that a Pt cluster selectively adsorbs on the second highest regions of graphene/Ru(0001).This work provides a simple model for understanding the adsorption properties and vibrational properties of graphene on Ru(0001) substrate.     

Room temperature ferromagnetism in Cu–Gd co-doped GaN nanowires: A first-principles study

The electronic structure and room temperature ferromagnetism of wurtzite Cu–Gd co-doped GaN nanowires have been investigated by means of the first-principles calculations within the density functional theory, including the on-site Coulomb energy U. The magnetic coupling between Gd atoms in the Gd-doped GaN nanowire is paramagnetic instead of ferromagnetic (FM) as in the bulk structure. After replacing Ga with Cu atom we find a stable FM coupling between Gd magnetic moments in this p-type system. p–d coupling between Cu-3d and N-2p states pushes N-2p states up to Fermi level due to the existence of hole states introduced by Cu dopants. While the p–d coupling between host N-2p and Gd-5d states near Fermi level stabilizes a FM phase of Gd magnetic moments. Furthermore, we get a FM state above room temperature by increasing the holes concentration.     

Development of the device prototype based on the semiconductor–carbon nanotubes structure for optical radiation detection and study of its parameters

A light-receiving device prototype based on the semiconductor–carbon nanotubes (CNTs) structure consisting of 16 cellular structured sensitive elements grown on the same substrate is developed. The topology of sensitive cells represents holes through metallization and insulator layers to the semiconductor from which the CNT array grows to the top metallization layer. The device prototype parameters are determined as follows: the effective wavelength range is within 400–1100 nm, the operational speed is no longer than 30 μs, the coefficients of peak sensitivity reached at wavelengths of 640 and 950 nm are 197 and 193 μA/W, respectively.