The anisotropic hard-sphere crystal-melt interfacial free energy from fluctuations

We have calculated the interfacial free energy for the hard-sphere system, as a function of crystal interface orientation, using a method that examines the fluctuations in the height of the interface during molecular dynamics simulations. The approach is particularly sensitive for the anisotropy of the interfacial free energy. We find an average interfacial free energy of gamma=0.56+/-0.02k(B)Tsigma(-2). This value is lower than earlier results based upon direct calculations of the free energy [R. L. Davidchack and B. B. Laird, Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 4751 (2000)]. However, both the average value and the anisotropy agree with the recent values obtained by extrapolation from direct calculations for a series of the inverse-power potentials [R. L. Davidchack and B. B. Laird, Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 086102 (2005)].     

Anisotropic interfacial free energies of the hard-sphere crystal-melt interfaces

We present a reliable method to define the interfacial particles for determining the crystal-melt interface position, which is the key step for the crystal-melt interfacial free energy calculations using capillary wave approach. Using this method, we have calculated the free energies gamma of the fcc crystal-melt interfaces for the hard-sphere system as a function of crystal orientations by examining the height fluctuations of the interface using Monte Carlo simulations. We find that the average interfacial free energy gamma(0) = 0.62 +/- 0.02k(B)T/sigma(2) and the anisotropy of the interfacial free energies are weak, gamma(100) = 0.64 +/- 0.02, gamma(110) = 0.62 +/- 0.02, gamma(111) = 0.61 +/- 0.02k(B)T/sigma(2). The results are in good agreement with previous simulation results based on the calculations of the reversible work required to create the interfaces (Davidchack and Laird, Phys. Rev. Lett. 2000, 85, 4571). In addition, our results indicate gamma(100) > gamma(110) > gamma(111) for the hard-sphere system, similar to the results of the Lennard-Jones system.     

Excitation energies for a benchmark set of molecules obtained within time-dependent current-density functional theory using the Vignale-Kohn functional

In this article we explain how the existing linear response theory of time-dependent density-functional theory can be extended to obtain excitation energies in the framework of time-dependent current-density-functional theory. We use the Vignale-Kohn current-functional [G. Vignale and W. Kohn, Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 2037 (1996)] which has proven to be successful for describing ultranonlocal exchange-correlation effects in the case of the axial polarizability of molecular chains [M. van Faassen, P. L. de Boeij, R. van Leeuwen, J. A. Berger, and J. G. Snijders, Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 186401 (2002); J. Chem. Phys. 118, 1044 (2003)]. We study a variety of singlet excitations for a benchmark set of molecules. The pi(*)<--pi transitions obtained with the Vignale-Kohn functional are in good agreement with experiment and other theoretical results and they are in general an improvement upon the adiabatic local density approximation. In case of the pi(*)<--n transitions the Vignale-Kohn functional fails, giving results that strongly overestimate the experimental and other theoretical results. The benchmark set also contains some other types of excitations for which no clear failures or improvements are observed.     

B80 and B101-103 clusters: remarkable stability of the core-shell structures established by validated density functionals

Prompted by the very recent claim that the volleyball-shaped B(80) fullerene [X. Wang, Phys. Rev. B 82, 153409 (2010)] is lower in energy than the B(80) buckyball [N. G. Szwacki, A. Sadrzadeh, and B. I. Yakobson, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 166804 (2007)] and core-shell structure [J. Zhao, L. Wang, F. Li, and Z. Chen, J. Phys. Chem. A 114, 9969 (2010)], and inspired by the most recent finding of another core-shell isomer as the lowest energy B(80) isomer [S. De, A. Willand, M. Amsler, P. Pochet, L. Genovese, and S. Goedecher, Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 225502 (2011)], we carefully evaluated the performance of the density functional methods in the energetics of boron clusters and confirmed that the core-shell construction (stuffed fullerene) is thermodynamically the most favorable structural pattern for B(80). Our global minimum search showed that both B(101) and B(103) also prefer a core-shell structure and that B(103) can reach the complete core-shell configuration. We called for great attention to the theoretical community when using density functionals to investigate boron-related nanomaterials.     

One-particle correlation function in evanescent wave dynamic light scattering

In order to interpret measured intensity autocorrelation functions obtained in evanescent wave scattering, their initial decay rates have been analyzed recently [P. Holmqvist, J. K. G. Dhont, and P. R. Lang, Phys. Rev. E 74, 021402 (2006); B. Cichocki, E. Wajnryb, J. Blawzdziewicz, J. K. G. Dhont, and P. R. Lang, J. Chem. Phys. 132, 074704 (2010); J. W. Swan and J. F. Brady, ibid. 135, 014701 (2011)]. A theoretical analysis of the longer time dependence of evanescent wave autocorrelation functions, beyond the initial decay, is still lacking. In this paper we present such an analysis for very dilute suspensions of spherical colloids. We present simulation results, a comparison to cumulant expansions, and experiments. An efficient simulation method is developed which takes advantage of the particular mathematical structure of the time-evolution equation of the probability density function of the position coordinate of the colloidal sphere. The computer simulation results are compared with analytic, first and second order cumulant expansions. The only available analytical result for the full time dependence of evanescent wave autocorrelation functions [K. H. Lan, N. Ostrowsky, and D. Sornette, Phys. Rev. Lett. 57, 17 (1986)], that neglects hydrodynamic interactions between the colloidal spheres and the wall, is shown to be quite inaccurate. Experimental results are presented and compared to the simulations and cumulant expansions.     

Diffusion in linear porous media with periodic entropy barriers: A tube formed by contacting spheres

The problem of transport in quasi-one-dimensional periodic structures has been studied recently by several groups [D. Reguera et al., Phys. Rev. Lett.96, 130603 (2006); P. S. Burada et al., Phys. Rev. E75, 051111 (2007); B. Q. Ai and L. G. Liu, ibid.74, 051114 (2006); B. Q. Ai et al., ibid.75, 061126 (2007); B. Q. Ai and L. G. Liu, J. Chem. Phys.126, 204706 (2007); 128, 024706 (2008); E. Yariv and K. D. Dorfman, Phys. Fluids19, 037101 (2007); N. Laachi et al., Europhys. Lett.80, 50009 (2007); A. M. Berezhkovskii et al., J. Chem. Phys.118, 7146 (2003); 119, 6991 (2003)]. Using the concept of "entropy barrier" [R. Zwanzig, J. Phys. Chem.96, 3926 (1992)] one can classify such structures based on the height of the entropy barrier. Structures with high barriers are formed by chambers, which are weakly connected with each other because they are connected by small apertures. To escape from such a chamber a diffusing particle has to climb a high entropy barrier to find an exit that takes a lot of time [I. V. Grigoriev et al., J. Chem. Phys.116, 9574 (2002)]. As a consequence, the particle intrachamber lifetime tau(esc) is much larger than its intrachamber equilibration time, tau(rel), tau(esc)>tau(rel). When the aperture is not small enough, the intrachamber escape and relaxation times are of the same order and the hierarchy fails. This is the case of low entropy barriers. Transport in this case is analyzed in the works of Schmid and co-workers, Liu and co-workers, and Dorfman and co-workers, while the work of Berezhkovskii et al. is devoted to diffusion in the case of high entropy barriers.     

Variationally stable calculations for molecular systems: polarizabilities and two-photon ionization cross section for the hydrogen molecule

The variationally stable method of Gao and Starace [B. Gao and A. F. Starace, Phys. Rev. Lett. 61, 404 (1988); Phys. Rev. A 39, 4550 (1989)] has been applied for the first time to the study of multiphoton processes in molecular systems. The generalization in theory is presented, as well as the calculation of properties such as the static and dynamic polarizabilities of the hydrogen molecule and the generalized two-photon ionization cross section. The Schwinger variational iterative method [R. R. Lucchese and V. McKoy, Phys. Rev. A 21, 112 (1980)] has been applied in the achievement of the photoelectron wave function, while a Hartree-Fock representation has been used for the target. This research has been motivated by the scarceness of ab initio calculations of molecular multiphoton ionization cross sections in the literature.     

Fast dynamics of wormlike micellar solutions

We present the first measurements of the fast dynamics of cationic wormlike micelles (WLM) using neutron spin echo (NSE). The comparison with theory [Zilman, A.; Granek, R. Phys. Rev. Lett. 1996, 77, 4788. Granek, R. J. Phys. II 1997, 7, 1761]1,2 enables coarse grained parameters to be identified. We propose and validate a calibration procedure to extract the bending constant kappa from NSE measurements.     

A comparison between high-symmetry Mn12 single-molecule magnets in different ligand/solvent environments

We present angle-resolved high-frequency electron paramagnetic resonance (HFEPR) data collected for single-crystal samples of deuterated and undeuterated Mn₁₂-acetate. The spectra reveal fine structures associated with the various Mn₁₂ species corresponding to the different local solvent environments proposed by Cornia et al. [A. Cornia, R. Sessoli, L. Sorace, D. Gatteschi, A.L. Barra, C. Daiguebonne, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89 (2002) 257201], and recently confirmed by Hill et al. [S. Hill, R.S. Edwards, S.I. Jones, J.M. North, N.S. Dalal, Phys. Rev. Lett. 90 (2003) 217204] and del Barco et al. [E. del Barco, A.D. Kent, E.M. Rumberger, D.N. Hendrickson, G. Christou, Phys. Rev. Lett. 91 (2003) 047203]. Each of the fine structures exhibits a distinct dependence on the applied field orientation, thereby highlighting the discrete nature of the disorder. We then compare these data with spectra obtained for two recently discovered high-symmetry (S₄) analogs of Mn₁₂-Ac, differing only in their ligand and solvent structures. None of the highly reproducible fine-structures seen in the Mn₁₂-Ac samples are found for the new Mn₁₂ complexes, thus confirming the idea that the solvent structure significantly influences the QMT dynamics in Mn₁₂-Ac. Indeed, the HFEPR spectra for Mn₁₂-BrAc and Mn₁₂-tBuAc provide spectacular resolution, allowing for unique spectroscopic insights into high-symmetry giant spin SMMs.     

Modeling collective behavior of molecules in nanoscale direct deposition processes

We present a theoretical model describing the collective behavior of molecules in nanoscale direct deposition processes such as dip-pen nanolithography. We show that strong intermolecular interactions combined with nonuniform substrate-molecule interactions can produce various shapes of molecular patterns including fractal-like structures. Computer simulations reveal circular and starlike patterns at low and intermediate densities of preferentially attractive surface sites, respectively. At large density of such surface sites, the molecules form a two-dimensional invasion percolation cluster. Previous experimental results showing anisotropic patterns of various chemical and biological molecules correspond to the starlike regime [P. Manandhar et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 115505 (2003); J.-H. Lim and C. A. Mirkin, Adv. Mater. (Weinheim, Ger.) 14, 1474 (2002); D. L. Wilson et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 98, 13660 (2001); M. Su et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 84, 4200 (2004); R. McKendry et al., Nano Lett. 2, 713 (2002); H. Zhou et al., Appl. Surf. Sci. 236, 18 (2004); G. Agarwal et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 125, 580 (2003)].     

Dispersion interactions in room-temperature ionic liquids: results from a non-empirical density functional

The role of dispersion or van de Waals (VDW) interactions in imidazolium-based room-temperature ionic liquids is studied within the framework of density functional theory, using a recently developed non-empirical functional [M. Dion, H. Rydberg, E. Schro?der, D. C. Langreth, and B. I. Lundqvist, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 246401 (2004)], as efficiently implemented in the SIESTA code [G. Roma?n-Pe?rez and J. M. Soler, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 096102 (2009)]. We present results for the equilibrium structure and lattice parameters of several crystalline phases, finding a general improvement with respect to both the local density (LDA) and the generalized gradient approximations (GGA). Similar to other systems characterized by VDW bonding, such as rare gas and benzene dimers as well as solid argon, equilibrium distances and volumes are consistently overestimated by ≈7%, compared to -11% within LDA and 11% within GGA. The intramolecular geometries are retained, while the intermolecular distances and orientations are significantly improved relative to LDA and GGA. The quality is superior to that achieved with tailor-made empirical VDW corrections ad hoc [M. G. Del Po?polo, C. Pinilla, and P. Ballone, J. Chem. Phys. 126, 144705 (2007)]. We also analyse the performance of an optimized version of this non-empirical functional, where the screening properties of the exchange have been tuned to reproduce high-level quantum chemical calculations [J. Klimes, D. Bowler, and A. Michaelides, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 22, 074203 (2010)]. The results for solids are even better with volumes and geometries reproduced within 2% of experimental data. We provide some insight into the issue of polymorphism of [bmim][Cl] crystals, and we present results for the geometry and energetics of [bmim][Tf] and [mmim][Cl] neutral and charged clusters, which validate the use of empirical force fields.     

Is a "homogeneous" description of dynamic heterogeneities possible?

We study the simplest model of dynamic heterogeneities in glass forming liquids: one-spin facilitated kinetic Ising model introduced by Fredrickson and Andersen [G. H. Fredrickson and H. C. Andersen, Phys. Rev. Lett. 53, 1244 (1984); J. Chem. Phys. 83, 5822 (1985)]. We show that the low-temperature, long-time behavior of the density autocorrelation function predicted by a scaling approach can be obtained from a self-consistent mode-couplinglike approximation.     

Vapor–liquid equilibrium,fluid state,and zero-pressure solid properties of chlorine from anisotropic interaction potential by molecular dynamics

Extensive examination of the anisotropic interaction potential of chlorine by Rodger et al. [P.M. Rodger, A.J. Stone, D.J. Tildesley, J. Chem. Soc., Faraday Trans. 2, 83 (1987) 1689–1702] (with interaction sites located at the positions of atoms in a molecule and the electrostatic part found by ab initio calculations) for its predictive power has been performed. We have calculated (i) the second virial coefficient by using a non-product algorithm, (ii) a series of liquid-phase state points in the temperature and pressure ranges of 200 to 400 K and 0 to 6.2 MPa, respectively, by the constant pressure–constant temperature molecular dynamics simulations, (iii) vapor–liquid equilibrium and heat of vaporization from the triple point (172 K) to 300 K by the Gibbs–Duhem integration method combined with simultaneous (but independent) constant pressure–constant temperature molecular dynamics simulations of the vapor and liquid phases, and (iv) the properties of the zero-pressure crystal structures by molecular dynamics technique due to Parinello and Rahman [M. Parrinello, A. Rahman, Phys. Rev. Lett. 45 (1980) 1196–1199]. Generally, good to excellent agreement of the calculated properties with the corresponding values for real chlorine was observed. The results obtained from the investigated interaction potential are equivalent to (or even better than) those reported for a more complicated potential by Wheatley and Price [R.J. Wheatley, S.L. Price, Mol. Phys. 71 (1990) 1381–1404].     

Calculating dispersion interactions using maximally localized Wannier functions

We investigate a recently developed approach [P. L. Silvestrelli, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 053002 (2008); J. Phys. Chem. A 113, 5224 (2009)] that uses maximally localized Wannier functions to evaluate the van der Waals contribution to the total energy of a system calculated with density-functional theory. We test it on a set of atomic and molecular dimers of increasing complexity (argon, methane, ethene, benzene, phthalocyanine, and copper phthalocyanine) and demonstrate that the method, as originally proposed, has a number of shortcomings that hamper its predictive power. In order to overcome these problems, we have developed and implemented a number of improvements to the method and show that these modifications give rise to calculated binding energies and equilibrium geometries that are in closer agreement to results of quantum-chemical coupled-cluster calculations.     

Electronic conductivity in polyaromatic hydrocarbon glasses: A theoretical perspective

Based upon Monte Carlo simulations of amorphous molecular glasses, we have computed the electronic structure of five prototypical polyaromatic hydrocarbons using an extended Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model [J. R. Schrieffer, W. P. Su, and A. J. Heeger, Phys. Rev. Lett. 42, 1698 (1979)]. In the presence of excess charges, the resulting potential energy surfaces have been analyzed using Marcus' [Annu. Rev. Phys. Chem. 15, 155 (1964)] theory of charge transfer to yield reaction coefficients and--via the application of linear response theory--local conductivities. Applying Kirchhoff's rules, the emerging random resistor network problem leads to global conductivities of the order of 10(-1)-1 Scm, which correlate with the structural characteristics of the underlying geometry.     

Distribution of transverse chain fluctuations in harmonically confined semiflexible polymers

Two different experimental studies of polymer dynamics based on single-molecule fluorescence imaging have recently found evidence of heterogeneities in the widths of the putative tubes that surround filaments of F-actin during their motion in concentrated solution. In one [J. Glaser, D. Chakraborty, K. Kroy, I. Lauter, M. Degawa, N. Kirchesner, B. Hoffmann, R. Merkel, and M. Giesen, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 037801 (2010)], the observations were explained in terms of the statistics of a worm-like chain confined to a potential determined self-consistently by a binary collision approximation, and in the other [B. Wang, J. Guan, S. M. Anthony, S. C. Bae, K. S. Schweizer, and S. Granick, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 118301 (2010)], they were explained in terms of the scaling properties of a random fluid of thin rods. In this paper, we show, using an exact path integral calculation, that the distribution of the length-averaged transverse fluctuations of a harmonically confined weakly bendable rod (one possible realization of a semiflexible chain in a tube), is in good qualitative agreement with the experimental data, although it is qualitatively different in analytic structure from the earlier theoretical predictions. We also show that similar path integral techniques can be used to obtain an exact expression for the time correlation function of fluctuations in the tube cross section.     

Connection between the observable and centroid structural properties of a quantum fluid: application to liquid para-hydrogen

It is shown that the discrepancy between path integral Monte Carlo [M. Zoppi et al., Phys. Rev. B 65, 092204 (2002)] and path integral centroid molecular dynamics [F. J. Bermejo et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 5359 (2000)] calculations of the static structure factor of liquid para-hydrogen can be explained based on a deconvolution equation connecting centroid and physical radial distribution functions. An explicit expression for the kernel of the deconvolution equation has been obtained using functional derivative techniques. In the superposition approximation, this kernel is given by the functional derivative of the effective potential with respect to the pairwise classical potential. Results of path integral Monte Carlo calculations for the radial distribution function and the static structure factor of liquid para-hydrogen are presented.     

Unimolecular rovibrational bound and resonance states for large angular momentum: J=20 calculations for HO2

We explore the calculation of unimolecular bound states and resonances for deep-well species at large angular momentum using a Chebychev filter diagonalization scheme incorporating doubling of the autocorrelation function as presented recently by Neumaier and Mandelshtam [Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 5031 (2001)]. The method has been employed to compute the challenging J=20 bound and resonance states for the HO2 system. The methodology has firstly been tested for J=2 in comparison with previous calculations, and then extended to J=20 using a parallel computing strategy. The quantum J-specific unimolecular dissociation rates for HO2-->H+O2 in the energy range from 2.114 to 2.596 eV have been reported for the first time, and comparisons with the results of Troe and co-workers [J. Chem. Phys. 113, 11019 (2000) Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2, 631 (2000)] from statistical adiabatic channel method/classical trajectory calculations have been made. For most of the energies, the reported statistical adiabatic channel method/classical trajectory rate constants agree well with the average of the fluctuating quantum-mechanical rates. Near the dissociation threshold, quantum rates fluctuate more severely, but their average is still in agreement with the statistical adiabatic channel method/classical trajectory results.     

Local biaxiality in cholesteric liquid crystals from the surface interaction model

The feature of local biaxiality of the orientational order in twisted nematics and cholesteric liquid-crystalline phases is faced by modeling the mean field orientational potential on the basis of the surface interaction model [A. Ferrarini, G. J. Moro, P. L. Nordio, and G. R. Luckhurst, Mol. Phys. 77, 1 (1992)]. Here we present a tool for the complete parameterization of the potential for general molecular structures and recover the long-pitch approximation usually invoked to model the molecular order in these phases. The method is applied to archetype molecular geometries (an ellipsoidal object, a conical object, a lath-shaped molecule, and the shape's enantiomers of a propellerlike molecule) in order to evaluate the dependence of the second-rank orientational order parameters on the pitch of the phase. Special emphasis is given to the so-called biaxiality parameter B [Z. Yaniv, N. A. P. Vaz, G. Chidichimo, and J. W. Doane, Phys. Rev. Lett. 47, 46 (1981)], which can be experimentally determined by the analysis of time-averaged (2)H-NMR spectra of deuterated probes dissolved in the twisted phase. The model calculations show how probes with different geometries are sensitive to the local biaxiality.