Structural and magnetic properties of CrSb compounds: NiAs structure

The structural and magnetic properties of CrSb compounds with NiAs structure have been studied by means of the Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker (KKR) band structure method. An analysis of the structural and magnetic stability has been performed on the basis of total energy calculations for various magnetic states. The magnetic properties at finite temperature have been investigated by means of Monte Carlo simulations on the basis of a classical Heisenberg Hamiltonian and the exchange coupling parameters calculated from first principles. This approach allowed us to determine the critical temperature in good agreement with experiment.     

Magnetic properties of Sm-based bulk metallic glasses

We perform detailed investigation on the magnetization and specific heat of Sm-based ternary bulk metallic glasses with different Co contents at low temperature. A low temperature cluster spin-glass phase below T_f ∼25 K is evidenced for all samples. This cluster spin-glass behavior is ascribed to competition among the multi-fold magnetic interactions and the intrinsic structural inhomogeneity. The magnetic relaxation behavior of the spin-glass phase can be well described using the stretched exponential dynamics. The magnetic hysteresis under field-cooling condition and spin dynamics further demonstrate the low temperature cluster spin-glass behavior. It is revealed that the Co atoms play an important role in modulating the physical properties of the present Sm-based ternary metallic glasses.     

Spin and spin-orbit coupling effects in nickel-based superalloys: A first-principles study on Ni3Al doped with Ta/W/Re

Heavy elements(X=Ta/W/Re)play an important role in the performance of superalloys,which enhance the strength,anti-oxidation,creep resistance,and anti-corrosiveness of alloy materials in a high-temperature environment.In the present research,the heavy element doping effects in FCC-Ni(γ)and Ni₃Al(γ')systems are investigated in terms of their thermodynamic and mechanical properties,as well as electronic structures.The lattice constant,bulk modulus,elastic constant,and dopant formation energy in non-spin,spin polarized,and spin-orbit coupling(SOC)calculations are compared.The results show that the SOC effects are important in accurate electronic structure calculations for alloys with heavy elements.We find that including spin for bothγandγ'phases is necessary and sufficient for most cases,but the dopant formation energy is sensitive to different spin effects,for instance,in the absence of SOC,even spin-polarized calculations give 1%to 9%variance in the dopant formation energy in our model.Electronic structures calculations indicate that spin polarization causes a split in the metal d states,and SOC introduces a variance in the spin-up and spin-down states of the d states of heavy metals and reduces the magnetic moment of the system.     

Electronic and magnetic properties of free and supported transition metal clusters

The spin-polarized relativistic version of the multiple scattering or the Korringa–Kohn–Rostoker method for electronic structure calculations has been used to study the electronic and magnetic properties of free and supported transition metal clusters. Corresponding results are presented for the spin- and spin–orbit-induced orbital magnetic moments in free Fe and FePt clusters. For both systems a pronounced enhancement is found for the spin as well as for the orbital moments compared with the corresponding bulk value which diminishes in an oscillatory fashion with increasing cluster size. Corresponding investigations on small Co clusters deposited on a Pt (111) surface also revealed a strong dependence of the magnetic properties on the cluster size and shape. A comparison of our theoretical results with available experimental data led to rather satisfying agreement.     

First-Principles Study of Magnetic Properties of TM_(13) and TM_(13)@Au_(32) Clusters(TM = Mn,Co)

The structural and magnetic properties of TM_(13 )and TM_(13)@Au_(32 )clusters(TM=Mn,Co)are studied by firstprinciples calculations.We find that the Au_(32 )cluster can tune not only the magnetic moment but also the magnetic coupling properties between the TM atoms of the TM cluster.The Au_(32 )cluster can increase the net magnetic moment of Mn_(13 )clusters while reducing that of Co_(13 )clusters.The interaction between Au and Mn atoms induces more Mn atoms to form spin parallel coupling,resulting in an increase of the total magnetic moment of Mn_(13 )clusters,while for the Co_(13 )clusters,the interaction between Au and Co atoms does not change the magnetic coupling states between the Co atoms,but reduces the magnetic moment of the Co atoms,leading to a decrease of the total magnetic moment of this system.Our findings indicate that the encapsulation of Au_(32 )clusters can not only raise the chemical stability of TM clusters,but also can tune their magnetic coupling properties and magnetic moment,which enables such systems to be widely applied in fields of spintronics and medical science.     

Van der Waals density functional theory study for bulk solids with BCC,FCC, and diamond structures

Proper inclusion of van der Waals (vdW) interactions in theoretical simulations based on standard density functional theory (DFT) is crucial to describe the physics and chemistry of systems such as organic and layered materials. Many encouraging approaches have been proposed to combine vdW interactions with standard approximate DFT calculations. Despite many vdW studies, there is no consensus on the reliability of vdW methods. To help further development of vdW methods, we have assessed various vdW functionals through the calculation of structural properties at equilibrium, such as lattice constants, bulk moduli, and cohesive energies, for bulk solids, including alkali, alkali-earth, and transition metals, with BCC, FCC, and diamond structures as the ground state structure. These results provide important information for the vdW-related materials research, which is essential for designing and optimizing materials systems for desired physical and chemical properties.     

Magnetic properties of 3d transition metal monolayers on metal substrates

We report results of systematic calculations for magnetic properties of 3d transition metal monolayers on Pd(001) and Ag(001). We find large similarities to interactions of magnetic 3d impurities in the bulk. Therefore the overlayer results are supplemented with results for 3d dimers in Cu, Ag, and Pd. Differences between the two classes of systems are utilized to reveal the interaction within the overlayers and between overlayers and substrates. In virtually all cases we find both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic solutions, showing large magnetic moments and similar densities of states. From the trend of the calculations we conclude that V, Cr, and Mn overlayers favor the antiferromagnetic c(2×2) structure, while Ti, Fe, Co, and Ni prefer the ferromagnetic one.     

Theories of surface elasticity for nanoscale objects

The emergence of nanotechnology has driven recent interest in systems having surface atoms as a significant fraction of all atoms present, in particular nano-sheets (ultra-thin slabs), nano-wires, and nano-particles. In these systems, the bulk (i.e. non-surface region or interior) is typically strained in response to the stress of the surface. This elastic strain of the bulk in turn changes the surface lattice constants. Since the bulk and the surface are coupled, the problem must be solved self-consistently. Solving this problem requires a quantitative model of the surface elastic properties which are different from the bulk. In this paper we consider various models that have been proposed for surface elasticity. Our goal is to elucidate the relationship between two contrasting approaches: (1) the Shuttleworth equation which defines a surface stress based on the strain derivative of the surface energy and (2) the Gurtin-Murdoch (GM) theory which considers the surface layer as a membrane with residual strain and with elastic constants different from the bulk. The GM theory is analogous to the 2-D Frenkel-Kontorova (FK) model and can be used to obtain quantitative parameters for the FK model. We present an embedded atom method calculation of the surface elastic constants of Cu(1 1 1) using the GM theory with the surface represented by a membrane one atomic layer thick. This quantitative approach describes the elastic properties of surfaces in a physically appealing way. Just as the bulk elastic constants provide direct information regarding the stress/strain relationship in a bulk material, the surface elastic constants provide similar information for a surface monolayer. This theory will allow elasticity analysis and atomistic calculations of properties of nano-scale objects.     

Nanoscale phase coexistence and percolative quantum transport

We study the nanoscale phase coexistence of ferromagnetic metallic and antiferromagnetic insulating (AFI) regions by including the effect of AF superexchange and weak disorder in the double exchange model. We use a new Monte Carlo technique, mapping on the disordered spin-fermion problem to an effective short range spin model, with self-consistently computed exchange constants. We recover "cluster coexistence" as seen earlier in exact simulation of small systems. The much larger sizes, approximately 32 x 32, accessible with our technique, allow us to study the cluster pattern for varying electron density, disorder, and temperature. We track the magnetic structure, obtain the density of states, with its "pseudogap" features, and, for the first time, provide a fully microscopic estimate of the resistivity in a phase coexistence regime, comparing it with the "percolation" scenario.     

Influence of pressure on the properties of GaN/AlN multi-quantum wells – Ab initio study

Pressure dependence of physical properties of GaN/AlN multi-quantum wells (MQWs) was investigated using ab intio calculations. The influence of pressure was divided into two main contributions: pressure affecting the properties of GaN and AlN bulk semiconductors and an influence on systems of polar quantum wells deposited on various substrates. An influence of hydrostatic, uniaxial, and tetragonal strain on the crystallographic structure, polarization (piezoelectricity), and the bandgap of the bulk systems is assessed using ab initio calculations. It was shown that when a partial relaxation of the structure is assumed, the tetragonal strain may explain an experimentally observed reduction of pressure coefficients for polar GaN/AlN MQWs. The MQWs were also simulated directly using density functional theory (DFT) calculations. A comparison of these two approaches confirmed that nonlinear effects induced by the tetragonal strain related to lattice mismatch between the substrates and the polar MQWs systems are responsible for a drastic decrease of the pressure coefficients of photoluminescence (PL) energy experimentally observed in polar GaN/AlGaN MQWs.     

Ab initio studies of the structural,elastic, electronic and thermal properties of NiTi2 intermetallic

First principles calculations were performed in the framework of the density functional theory (DFT) using the Full Potential–Linear Augment Plane Wave method (FP–LAPW) within the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) to predict the structural, electronic, elastic and thermal properties of NiTi₂ intermetallic compound. By using the Wien2k all-electron code, calculations of the ground state and electronic properties such as lattice constants, bulk modulus, presure derivative of bulk modulus, total energies and density of states were also included. The elastic constants and mechanical properties such as Poisson’s ratio, Young’s modulus and shear modulus are estimated from the calculated elastic constants of the single crystal. Through the quasi-harmonic Debye model, the preasure and temperature dependences of the linear expansion coefficient, bulk modulus and heat capacity have been investigated. Finally, the Debye temperature has been estimated from the average sound velocity according to the predicted polycrystal bulk properties and from the single crystal elastic constants.     

The love-hate relationship between the shell model and cluster models

We adopt a personal approach here reviewing several calculations over the years in which we have experienced confrontations between cluster models and the shell model. In previous cluster conferences, we have noted that cluster models go hand in hand with Skyrme-Hartree-Fock calculations in describing states which cannot easily, if at all, be handled by the shell model. These are the highly deformed (many particle-many hole) intruder states, linear chain states, etc. In the present work, we will consider several topics: the quadrupole moment of ⁶Li; the nonexistence of low-lying intruders in ⁸Be; and then jumping to the f _7/2 shell, we discuss the two-faceted nature of the nuclei, which sometimes display shell-model properties and other times cluster properties.     

Magnetic and electronic properties of Mn2Sn thin films: First-principles calculations and high temperature series expansions

In this paper, first-principles calculations have been performed in order to study the electronic and magnetic properties of the bulk and the (0 0 1) surface of Mn₂Sn thin films using self-consistent ab initio calculations, based on the density functional theory approach and using the product of the muffin-tin radius and the maximum reciprocal space vector, R_MT. K_max, we full potential linear augmented plane wave methods. Spin-polarized calculations within the framework of density-functional theory are a powerful tool for describing the magnetism of itinerant electrons in solid state materials. The total and partial density of states of Mn₂Sn thin films were calculated. The magnetic moments considered to lie along the c axes are computed. The data obtained from the ab initio calculations are used as an input for the high temperature series expansions calculations used to compute other magnetic parameters. The critical temperature and exchange interactions between the magnetic atoms in the Mn₂Sn thin films are obtained using high temperature series expansions and mean field theory, respectively.     

Structural and magneto-transport characterization of Co2CrxFe1-xAl Heusler alloy films

We investigate the structure and magneto-transport properties of thin films of the Co₂Cr_0.6Fe_0.4Al full-Heusler compound, which is predicted to be a half-metal by first-principles theoretical calculations. Thin films are deposited by magnetron sputtering at room temperature on various substrates in order to tune the growth from polycrystalline on thermally oxidized Si substrates to highly textured and even epitaxial on MgO(001) substrates, respectively. Our Heusler films are magnetically very soft and ferromagnetic with Curie temperatures up to 630 K. The total magnetic moment is reduced compared to the theoretical bulk value, but still comparable to values reported for films grown at elevated temperature. Polycrystalline Heusler films combined with MgO barriers are incorporated into magnetic tunnel junctions and yield 37% magnetoresistance at room temperature.     

Mn/GaAs(001)的表面再构与Mn的磁矩研究

通过第一性原理计算，系统地研究了Mn/GaAs(001)表面的各种再构和相应的局域电子态密度分布，以及表面上Mn的磁矩与各种再构间的对应关系.结果发现，Mn的行为类似电荷施主，将向GaAs表面提供电子，数量依表面的需求而定；直接与Mn的磁矩相联系的d轨道，既可以向GaAs表面施予电子，以弥补Mn的s电子的不足，又可以吸纳因GaAs表面饱和而富余的s电子.这些概念可有效地简化对金属引起的半导体表面再构的理论描述. 关键词： 表面再构 Mn/GaAs(001) 第一性原理计算     

Passage from spin-polarized surface states to unpolarized quantum well states in topologically nontrivial Sb films

Topological materials have unusual surface spin properties including a net surface spin current protected by the bulk symmetry properties. When such materials are reduced to thin films, their gapless spin-polarized surface states must connect, by analytic continuation, to bulk-derived quantum-well states, which are spin-unpolarized in centrosymmetric systems. The nature of this passage in a model system, Sb films, is investigated. Angle-resolved photoemission shows a smooth transition, while calculations elucidate the correlated evolution of the spin and charge distributions in real space.     

Cluster growth processes by direct simulation monte carlo method

Thin films obtained by cluster deposition have attracted strong attention both as a new manufacturing technique to realize high-density magnetic recording media and to create systems with unique magnetic properties. Because the film’s features are influenced by the cluster properties during the flight path, the relevant physical scale to be studied is as large as centimeters. In this paper, a new model of cluster growth processes based on a combination of the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method and the cluster growth model is introduced to examine the effects of experimental conditions on cluster growth by an adiabatic expansion process. From the macroscopic viewpoint, we simulate the behavior of clusters and inert gas in the flight path under different experimental conditions. The internal energy of the cluster, which consists of rotational and vibrational energies, is limited by the binding energy which depends on the cluster size. These internal and binding energies are used as criteria of the cluster growth. The binding energy is estimated by surface and volume terms. Several types of size distribution of generated clusters under various conditions are obtained by the present model. The results of the present numerical simulations reveal that the size distribution is strongly related to the experimental conditions and can be controlled. Received: 23 January 2001 / Accepted: 3 May 2001 / Published online: 30 August 2001     

Multiscale modeling of precipitate microstructure evolution

We demonstrate how three "state-of-the-art" techniques may be combined to build a bridge between atomistics and microstructure: (1) first-principles calculations, (2) a mixed-space cluster expansion approach, and (3) the diffuse-interface phase-field model. The first two methods are used to construct the driving forces for a phase-field microstructural model of theta'- Al2Cu precipitates in Al: bulk, interfacial, and elastic energies. This multiscale approach allows one to isolate the physical effects responsible for precipitate microstructure evolution.