Compton scattering study and electronic properties of vanadium carbide: A validation of hybrid functional

In this paper, we have reported the isotropic Compton profile of VC measured using high energy (661.65 keV) γ-radiations from a ¹³⁷Cs isotope. To compare the experimental momentum densities, we have also employed the linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO). In addition, energy bands, density of states and Fermi surface topology of VC have been computed using FP-LAPW and LCAO methods. It is seen that the LCAO with hybridization of density functional theory and Hartree-Fock (so called B3LYP) gives a better agreement with the present Compton profile experiment. This shows validation of an exact exchange part in hybrid density functional. On the basis of energy bands, we have discussed the microscopic origin for the anomalous behavior of hardness of VC. The relative nature of bonding in VC and NbC is also discussed in terms of valence charge densities and Mulliken′s population analysis. To establish the role of Compton profiles in computation of cohesive properties of refractory materials, we have also calculated for the first time the cohesive energy using the present experimental Compton profile and compared it with the existing data.     

Electronic properties and compton profiles of silver iodide

We have carried out an extensive study of electronic properties of silver iodide in β- and γ-phases. The theoretical Compton profiles, energy bands, density of states and anisotropies in momentum densities are computed using density functional theories. We have also employed full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave method to derive the energy bands and the density of states. To compare our theoretical data, isotropic Compton profile measurement on γ-AgI using ¹³⁷Cs Compton spectrometer at an intermediate resolution of 0.38 a.u. has been undertaken. The theoretical anisotropies are also interpreted on the basis of energy bands.     

Electronic properties and Compton profiles of molybdenum dichalcogenides

We present the first ever experimental Compton profiles of molybdenum dichalcogenides (MoX₂; X=S and Te) using 20 Ci ¹³⁷Cs Compton spectrometer. To interpret our experimental data, we have computed the theoretical profiles, energy bands and density of states using linear combination of atomic orbitals method in the framework of density functional theory and its hybridisation with Hartree Fock. The energy bands and density of states using full potential linearised augmented plane wave method have also been computed. Both theories show the existence of the indirect band gap. In addition, the relative nature of bonding is explained in terms of equal-valence-electron-density profiles and valence band charge densities.     

Electron momentum density and phase transition in SrO

In this article, we present electron momentum density distribution and phase transition in SrO. The experimental values of momentum density have been measured using 5Ci ²⁴¹Am Compton spectrometer and analyzed using theoretical data obtained from the ab-initio linear combination of atomic orbitals method. The first-principles calculations of the total energy of SrO as a function of cell volume have also been carried out for the cubic rocksalt (B1) and cesium chloride (B2) phases. Several structural parameters, i.e. equilibrium lattice constant, transition pressure, bulk modulus, etc. of B1 and B2 phases have been calculated and compared with the previous investigations. We conclude that the stable phase of SrO is B1 and the phase transition from B1 to B2 occurs at 35.8?GPa.     

Magnetic and electronic properties of NiAs-type chromium chalcogenides

We have computed spin-dependent energy bands, spin moments and density of states of NiAs-type CrX (X=S, Se and Te) chalcogenides using linear combination of atomic orbitals method within density functional theory as well as full potential augmented plane wave method. In addition, magnetic properties have also been computed using spin polarized relativistic Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker method. We have also obtained the first ever theoretical electron momentum densities of CrX compounds considering linear combination of atomic orbitals and compared the results with the isotropic Compton profiles measured using 20 Ci ¹³⁷Cs Compton spectrometer. The Fermi surface topology and magnetic properties are discussed in terms of majority and minority energy bands and density of states. In addition, to highlight the role of Cr (3d) electrons in such type of chalcogenides, we have also reported the magnetic Compton profile of CrTe using the Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker method.     

Ab-initio study of structural and electronic properties of AlAs

The structural properties, i.e. equilibrium lattice constant, transition pressure, bulk modulus and its pressure derivatives, together with electronic properties, i.e. energy bands, Compton profile and autocorrelation function, of AlAs are presented in this work. The linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) method of the CRYSTAL code was applied considering the Perdew–Burke–Ernzerhof correlation energy functional and Becke's ansatz for the exchange. The total energy of AlAs as a function of primitive cell volume has also been calculated for the zincblende (B3), nickel arsenide (B8), sodium chloride (B1) and cesium chloride (B2) phases. Structural parameters of the B3, B8, B1 and B2 phases are determined. The calculated structural parameters are found to be in good agreement with the results of previous investigations. The spherically averaged theoretical values of Compton profile are in good agreement with an earlier measurement. The LCAO calculation shows an indirect band gap of 1.85?eV, in reasonable agreement with earlier data. On the basis of the equal-valence-electron-density Compton profile, it is found that AlAs is more ionic compared to AlSb.     

Structural,electronic and mechanical properties of alkaline earth metal oxides MO (M=Be,Mg, Ca,Sr, Ba)

The structural, electronic and mechanical properties of alkaline earth metal oxides MO (M=Be, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba) in the cubic (B1, B2 and B3) phases and in the wurtzite (B4) phase are investigated using density functional theory calculations as implemented in VASP code. The lattice constants, cohesive energy, bulk modulus, band structures and the density of states are computed. The calculated lattice parameters are in good agreement with the experimental and the other available theoretical results. Electronic structure reveals that all the five alkaline earth metal oxides exhibit semiconducting behavior at zero pressure. The estimated band gaps for the stable wurtzite phase of BeO is 7.2 eV and for the stable cubic NaCl phases of MgO, CaO, SrO and BaO are 4.436 eV, 4.166 eV, 4.013 eV, and 2.274 eV respectively. A pressure induced structural phase transition occurs from wurtzite (B4) to NaCl (B1) phase in BeO at 112.1 GPa and from NaCl (B1) to CsCl (B2) phase in MgO at 514.9 GPa, in CaO at 61.3 GPa, in SrO at 42 GPa and in BaO at 14.5 GPa. The elastic constants are computed at zero and elevated pressures for the B4 and B1 phases for BeO and for the B1 and B2 phases in the case of the other oxides in order to investigate their mechanical stability, anisotropy and hardness. The sound velocities and the Debye temperatures are calculated for all the oxides using the computed elastic constants.     

Application of maximum entropy method for the study of electron density distribution in SrS, BaS and PuS using powder X-ray data

A study of the electronic structure of the three sulphides, SrS, BaS and PuS has been carried out in this work, using the powder X-ray intensity data from JCPDS powder diffraction data base. The statistical approach, MEM (maximum entropy method) is used for the analysis of the data for the electron density distribution in these materials and an attempt has been made to understand the bonding between the metal atom and the sulphur atom. The mid-bond electron density is found to be maximum for PuS among these three sulphides, being 0.584 e/Å3 at 2.397 Å. SrS is found to have the lowest electron density at the mid-bond (0.003 e/ų) at 2.118 Å from the origin leaving it more ionic than the other two sulphides studied in this work. The two-dimensional electron density maps on (100) and (110) planes and the one-dimensional profiles along the bonding direction [111] are used for these analyses. The overall and individual Debye-Waller factors of atoms in these systems have also been studied and analyzed. The refinements of the observed X-ray data were carried out using standard softwares and also a routine written by the author     

Investigation of electronic properties of crystalline arsenic chalcogenides: Theory and experiment

The electronic structure of crystalline As₂S₃ and As₂Se₃ has been calculated in this paper. We present the energy bands, density of states (DOS) and the Compton profiles using the linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) scheme based on the density functional theory (DFT). From the calculated total and partial density of states it is seen that the lone-pair p-states of sulphur/selenium contribute closest to the Fermi energy level. To interpret the theoretical data on the Compton line shape, we have measured the Compton profiles on a 100 mCi ²⁴¹Am spectrometer. It is seen that the density functional theory within generalised gradient approximation gives a slightly better agreement with the experimental momentum densities. The nature of chemical bonding in arsenic chalcogenides is studied using Mulliken's population analysis and the experimentally measured equal-valence-electron-density profiles; As₂S₃ is found to be more ionic compared to As₂Se₃.     

Compton profile study of V3Ge and Cr3Ge

In this paper the results of a Compton profile study of two polycrystalline A15 compounds, namely, V₃Ge and Cr₃Ge, have been reported. The measurements have been performed using 59.54 keV γ-rays from an ²⁴¹Am source. The theoretical Compton profiles have been computed for both the compounds using ab-initio linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) method employing CRYSTAL98. For both the A15 compounds, the isotropic experimental profiles are found to be in good overall agreement with the calculations. The comparison points out residual differences in V₃Ge whereas for Cr₃Ge the differences are within experimental error. The behaviour of valence electrons in the two iso-structural compounds has been examined on the scale of Fermi momentum. The valence electron distribution seems to be dominated by the metallic constituents rather than Ge and two compounds show covalent nature of bonding which is larger in V₃Ge compared to Cr₃Ge.      

Room temperature Compton profiles of conduction electrons in α-Ga metal

Room temperature Compton profiles of momentum distribution of conduction electrons in α -Ga metal are calculated in band model. For this purpose, the conduction electron wave functions are determined in a temperature-dependent non-local model potential. The profiles calculated along the crystallographic directions, (100), (010), and (001) are found to be nearly isotropic. This conclusion is in reasonable agreement with experimental observations     

NO与C2H2的康普顿轮廓研究

基于第三代同步辐射光源, 在20 keV的入射X射线能量下测量了NO与C₂H₂分子的康普顿轮廓. 考虑到本次实验结果在p_z ≈ 0附近的统计精度达到了0.2%, 本文报道的NO和C₂H₂的康普顿轮廓可以作为严格检验理论的实验基准. 除此之外, 还分别采用HF方法及密度泛函方法选用不同的基组计算了NO 与C₂H₂康普顿轮廓. 通过对比实验结果与理论计算, 发现对于NO分子, 加入弥散函数基组理论计算结果与实验符合更好, 说明NO分子基态的电子分布较为弥散. 对于C₂H₂分子, HF方法理论计算的结果与实验符合较好.     

Anisotropy in the compton profile of copper

Directional Compton profiles of high statistical accuracy are measured by means of a 412 keV gamma-ray Compton spectrometer. The experimental anisotropies are in very satisfactory agreement with earlier measurements and there is good qualitative agreement between the experimental data and a recent band structure calculation. Quantitatively, however, the experimental anisotropy is significantly smaller than predicted by theory.A simple model calculation based on the Seitz approximation, in which higher order Fermi surface volumes all of spherical shape are taken into account in obtaining the momentum density, demonstrates that the major contribution to the Compton profile anisotropy in copper is due to the hybridization which has mixedd-electrons and nearly-free electrons in the top band. Any fine structure in the theoretical anisotropy due to the detailed shape of the Fermi surface cannot be resolved in the present experiment.The potential of analysing the electronic structure of transition metals in terms ofB(r), the Fourier transform of the momentum density, is discussed in detail. The major contribution to the anisotropy arises from localised peaks inB(r) centered on the sites of the translational lattice. Within the Seitz approximation it could be shown that these secondary maxima are caused by the presence of localisedd-electrons in the highest partly occupied band. In conclusion we anticipate that a proper treatment of electron correlation would produce a marked quantitative improvement in the agreement between the present experimental data and the Compton profiles obtained from current band structure calculations.     

Electronic and optical properties of ceramic Sc2O3 and Y2O3: Compton spectroscopy and first principles calculations

We present the first-ever experimental Compton profiles (CPs) of Sc₂O₃ and Y₂O₃ using 740 GBq ¹³⁷Cs Compton spectrometer. The experimental momentum densities have been compared with the theoretical CPs computed using linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) within density functional theory (DFT). Further, the energy bands, density of states (DOS) and Mulliken's population (MP) data have been calculated using LCAO method with different exchange and correlation approximations. In addition, the energy bands, DOS, valence charge density (VCD), dielectric function, absorption coefficient and refractive index have also been computed using full potential linearized augmented plane wave (FP-LAPW) method with revised functional of Perdew–Becke–Ernzerhof for solids (PBEsol) and modified Becke Johnson (mBJ) approximations. Both the ab-initio calculations predict wide band gaps in Sc₂O₃ and Y₂O₃. The band gaps deduced from FP-LAPW (with mBJ) are found to be close to available experimental data. The VCD and MP data show more ionic character of Sc₂O₃ than Y₂O₃. The ceramic properties of both the sesquioxides are explained in terms of their electronic and optical properties.     

Structural and electronic properties of cubic SrHfO3 surface: First-principles calculations

Structural, electronic and chemical bonding properties of the (0 0 1) surface of cubic SrHfO₃ have been investigated with both SrO and HfO₂ termination using the plane-wave ultrasoft pseudopotential technique based on the first-principles density-functional theory. The relaxed structures of two slabs have been analyzed, which shows the interplanar distance of two slabs has the same changed trend. The electronic band structures and density of states of two slabs have been discussed, showing the reduced band gaps by comparison with those of bulk system. The chemical bonding between Sr and O between the surface layer and subsurface layer as well as Hf and O has been increased. The surface energy, work function and stability have been calculated, which indicates SrO-terminated slab is more stable.     

Compton scattering and charge transfer in Er substituted DyAl2

A unique applicability of Compton spectroscopy in probing the electronic states of rare earth aluminides using high energy (662 keV) γ-rays is reported. We have measured first-ever Compton profiles of Dy_1-xEr_xAl₂ (x=0, 0.2) using 20Ci ¹³⁷Cs Compton spectrometer. The charge reorganization in Dy_1−xEr_xAl₂ (x=0, 0.2), on the formation of compound, has been discussed using the valence band Compton profile data. The experimental Compton profile data unambiguously establish charge transfer from Al to Dy (Dy and Er) on formation of x=0.0 (0.2) compound, which is in tune with spin polarized relativistic Korringa–Kohn–Rostoker (SPR-KKR) calculations. A reasonable agreement between SPR-KKR based Compton profiles and the experimental data show applicability of the Green function method in predicting the electronic properties of rare earth compounds.     

Theoretical investigation of phase transition properties in strontium chalcogenides using potential model

The Born–Mayer potential has been employed to predict the phase transition pressure in four strontium monochalcogenides, namely, SrO, SrS, SrSe, and SrTe, which crystallize in the NaCl (B1) phase and with the application of pressure, transforms to the CsCl (B2) phase. The compression, bulk modulus and the first-order pressure derivative of bulk modulus have also been calculated and compared with the available experimental and other theoretical results. The calculated values of transition pressure and other elastic properties predict that the hardness and strength parameters depend on the crystal structure and have the different values for different structures.     

立方KCaF_3电子、弹性和光学性质的第一性原理研究

基于密度泛函理论和赝势平面波近似法计算研究了立方钙钛矿KCaF_3的弹性、电子和光学性质.基态时,KCaF_3平衡晶格常数、体积弹性模量和实验及其他计算值一致.根据Hooke定律和Christoffel方程,研究了KCaF_3弹性常数Cij、体积弹性模量B、各向同性波速和弹性各向性异性因子随压力的变化关系.从电子能带理论出发,计算得到了KCaF_3电子能带、态密度和Milliken电荷布居数,并对其电子性质进行了详细分析.结果显示:立方钙钛矿KCaF_3为直接带隙绝缘体材料,其禁带宽度为6.22 e V;电荷主要从Ca和K原子向F原子转移;立方钙钛矿KCaF_3属于纯粹的共价型化合物.同时,本文还计算研究了KCaF_3的光学介电函数、吸收系数、复折射率、能量损失谱和反射系数等光学性质.     

立方KCaF3电子、弹性和光学性质的第一性原理研究

基于密度泛函理论和赝势平面波近似法计算研究了立方钙钛矿KCaF3的弹性、电子和光学性质。基态时,KCaF3平衡晶格常数、体积弹性模量和其他计实验和算值一致。根据Hooke定律和Christoffel方程,研究了KCaF3弹性常数Cij、体积弹性模量B、各向同性波速和弹性各向性异性因子随压力的变化关系。从电子能带理论出发,计算得到了KCaF3电子能带、态密度和Milliken电荷布居数,并对其电子性质进行了详细分析。结果显示：立方钙钛矿KCaF3为直接带隙绝缘体材料,其禁带宽度为6.22eV;电荷主要从Ca和K原子向F原子转移;立方钙钛矿KCaF3属于纯粹的共价型化合物。同时,本文还计算研究了KCaF3的光学介电函数、吸收系数、复折射率、能量损失谱和反射系数等光学性质。