New light on disordered ensembles: ab initio structure determination of one particle from scattering fluctuations of many copies

We report on the first experimental ab?initio reconstruction of an image of a single particle from fluctuations in the scattering from an ensemble of copies, randomly oriented about an axis. The method is applicable to identical particles frozen in space or time (as by snapshot diffraction from an x-ray free electron laser). These fluctuations enhance information obtainable from an experiment such as conventional small angle x-ray scattering.     

Properties of liquid silicon observed by time-resolved x-ray absorption spectroscopy

Time-resolved x-ray spectroscopy at the Si L edges is used to probe the electronic structure of an amorphous Si foil as it melts following absorption of an ultrafast laser pulse. Picosecond temporal resolution allows observation of the transient liquid phase before vaporization and before the liquid breaks up into droplets. The melting causes changes in the spectrum that match predictions of molecular dynamics and ab initio x-ray absorption codes.     

Experimental and Ab Initio Studies of the HDO Absorption Spectrum in the 13 165-13 500 cm(-1) Spectral Region

The HDO absorption spectrum was recorded in the 13 165-13 500 cm(-1) spectral region by intracavity laser absorption spectroscopy. The spectrum (615 lines), dominated by the 2nu(2) + 3nu(3) and nu(1) + 3nu(3) bands, was assigned and modeled leading to the derivation of 196 accurate energy levels of the (103) and (023) vibrational states. Finally, 150 of these levels were reproduced by an effective Hamiltonian involving two vibrational dark states interacting with the (023) and (103) bright states. The rms deviation achieved by variation of 28 parameters is 0.05 cm(-1), compared to an averaged experimental uncertainty of 0.007 cm(-1), indicating the limit of validity of the effective Hamiltonian approach for HDO at high-vibrational excitation. The predictions of previous ab initio calculations of the HDO spectrum (H. Partridge and D. Schwenke, J. Chem. Phys. 106, 4618-4639 (1997)) were extensively used in the assignment process. The particular spectral region under consideration was used to test and discuss the improvements of new ab initio calculations recently performed on the basis of the same potential energy surface but with an improved dipole-moment surface. The improvements concern both the energy levels and the line intensities. In particular, the strong hybrid character of the nu(1) + 3nu(3) band is very well accounted for by the new ab initio calculations. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.     

Non-magnetic impurity induced magnetism in rutile TiO2:K compounds

Recent ab initio studies have theoretically predicted room temperature ferromagnetism in several oxide materials of the type AO(2) in which the cation A(4+) is substituted by a non-magnetic element of the 1 A column. Our purpose is to address experimentally the possibility of magnetism in Ti(1-x)K(x)O(2) compounds. The samples have been synthesized via the solid state route method at equilibrium. Our study has shown that Ti(1-x)K(x)O(2) is thermodynamically unstable and leads to a phase separation, in contradiction with the hypothesis of ab initio calculations. In particular, the crystalline TiO(2) grains appear to be surrounded by K-based phase. The oxidization state of the Ti ion is found to be in Ti(4+) as confirmed from the x-ray photoelectron spectra measurement. Nevertheless, K:TiO(2) compounds exhibit weak paramagnetism with the highest magnetic moment of ~0.5 μ(B) K(-1) but no long-range ferromagnetic order. The observed moment in these compounds remains much smaller than the predicted moment of 3 μ(B) by ab initio calculation. The apparent contradictions between our experiments and first-principles studies are discussed.     

Improved measurement of the 1s2s 1S0-1s2p 3P1 interval in heliumlike silicon

Using colinear fast-beam laser spectroscopy with copropagating and counter-propagating beams we have measured the 1s2s 1S0-1s2p 3P1 intercombination interval in 28Si12+ with the result 7230.585(6) cm{-1}. The experiment made use of a dual-wavelength, high-finesse, power build-up cavity excited by single-frequency lasers at 1319 and 1450 nm. The result will provide a precision test of ab initio relativistic many-body atomic theory at moderate Z.     

Geometric structure of TiO2(011)(2 x 1)

Surface x-ray diffraction has been employed to elucidate the surface structure of the (011)-(2 x 1) termination of rutile TiO2. The data are inconsistent with previously proposed structures. Instead, an entirely unanticipated geometry emerges from the structure determination, which is terminated by zigzag rows of twofold coordinated oxygen atoms asymmetrically bonded to fivefold titanium atoms. The energetic stability of this structure is demonstrated by ab initio total energy calculations.     

Entropy driven atomic motion in laser-excited bismuth

We introduce a thermodynamical model based on the two-temperature approach in order to fully understand the dynamics of the coherent A(1g) phonon in laser-excited bismuth. Using this model, we simulate the time evolution of (111) Bragg peak intensities measured by Fritz et al. [Science 315, 633 (2007)] in femtosecond x-ray diffraction experiments performed on a bismuth film for different laser fluences. The agreement between theoretical and experimental results is striking not only because we use fluences very close to the experimental ones but also because most of the model parameters are obtained from ab initio calculations performed for different electron temperatures.     

Precision measurement of the 6He half-life and the weak axial current in nuclei

Studies of 6He beta decay along with tritium can play an important role in testing ab initio nuclear wave-function calculations and may allow for fixing low-energy constants in effective-field theories. Here, we present an improved determination of the 6He half-life to a relative precision of 3×10(-4). Our value of 806.89±0.11(stat)(-0.19syst)(+0.23) ms resolves a major discrepancy between previous measurements. Calculating the statistical rate function we determined the ft value to be 803.04(-0.23)(+0.26) s. The extracted Gamow-Teller matrix element agrees within a few percent with ab initio calculations.     

蓝宝石在高压下光学性质及能带结构的从头算模拟

采用量子力学从头算和赝势平面波基组以及GGA-PBE交换相关函数对蓝宝石(α- Al2O3)窗口材料在0－1000GPa静水压力作用下光学性质及能带结构进行了研究。结果表明， 在静水压力作用下可以观察到蓝宝石一直保持良好的透明性，前沿带隙随着压力的增大先变大后变小，而且部分键长有明显变化，即蓝宝石单晶结构在加压过程中发生了原子位置移动而进行了位置重构。     

蓝宝石在高压下光学性质及能带结构的从头算模拟

采用量子力学从头算和赝势平面波基组以及GGA-PBE交换相关函数对蓝宝石(α- Al2O3)窗口材料在0－1000GPa静水压力作用下光学性质及能带结构进行了研究。结果表明, 在静水压力作用下可以观察到蓝宝石一直保持良好的透明性,前沿带隙随着压力的增大先变大后变小,而且部分键长有明显变化,即蓝宝石单晶结构在加压过程中发生了原子位置移动而进行了位置重构。     

钽酸锂、蓝宝石在高压下的光学性质从头算研究

采用量子力学从头算和赝势平面波基组以及非局域广义梯度近似(PP-GGA)方法对两种光学窗口材料(单晶LiTaO3和蓝宝石α-Al2O3)在0~250 GPa静水压力范围内的光学透明性进行了研究.结果表明,随着压力的增加蓝宝石和钽酸锂的最大吸收峰位置均向低波长区移动(蓝移).蓝宝石在0~250 GPa压力下,可见光范围内一直保持其透明性,而LiTaO3则在高压下时就变得不透明了,其原因是钽酸锂的前沿能带闭合而导致其吸收带宽随外界压力的增大变宽所致.     

Two-Photon Optical Properties of Novel Branched Conjugated Derivatives Carrying Benzophenone Moiety with Various Electron Donor-Acceptor Substituent Groups

This paper presents a range of novel new branched conjugated dyes containing benzophenone moiety. As compared with those of 4-(p-benzoyl-styrene)yl-4'-(styrene)yl-triphenylamine (C1) and 4-(p-benzoyl-styrene)yl-4'-3,4,5-trimethoxyl-styrene)yl-triphenylamine (C2), the maximal linear absorption and emission wavelength of 4-(p-benzoyl-styrene)yl-4'-(p'-nitro-styrene)yl-triphenylamine (C3) displays red-shifted remarkably, While the fluorescence quantum yields of C3 are lower than those of C1 and C2 in various solvents. The fluorescence lifetimes of the derivatives were measured, and radiative and non-radiative transition constants of the derivatives were calculated. Two-photon absorption (TPA) optical data of the derivatives were measured by Ti:sapphire femtosecond laser tuning from 720 to 880 nm at intervals of 20 nm. TPA induced fluorescence emission of C3 is red-shifted with respected to that of C1 and C2. TPA cross sections of C3 are larger than those of C1 and C2 in various excited laser frequencies. TPA cross section of C2 and C3 are much larger than those of 3,4,5-(trimethoxylstyrene)yl-triphenylamine (C4) and 4-(p-nitrostyrene)yl-triphenylamine (C5) respectively under various near-IR Ti:sapphire femtosecond laser wavelength. C1 and C2 show similar one- and two- photon optical nature. Geometry optimization with ab initio method confirms that C3 has different electron density distribution, the energy levels in frontier orbitals, the dipole moment changes, the absorption and emission spectroscopy from those of C1 and C2. The cyclic voltammograms of the derivatives were detected in methylene chloride at various scan rates, and the energy of frontier orbials were estimated further from the redox potentials.     

Magnetic and structural properties of FeCr alloys

Synergistic synchrotron x-ray absorption experiments using imaging magnetic microspectroscopy, x-ray magnetic circular dichroism, and ab initio calculations on FeCr alloys reveal that the Cr content strongly influences the ferromagnetic microstructure and the Fe magnetic moments. The Cr local structure resolved by extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) is also found to be affected by the alloy's composition. Both EXAFS and ab initio calculations show a change in the Cr local atomic structure above 10 at.% Cr content from the distance contraction of the first two coordination shells around the Cr absorbing atom. These results indicate the strong dependence of magnetic and structural properties of these alloys on Cr concentration.     

Local chiral-symmetry breaking in globally centrosymmetric crystals

A thorough tensor analysis of the Bragg-forbidden reflection (00.3)(h) in corundum systems having a global center of inversion, such as V2O3 and alpha-Fe2O3, shows that anomalous x-ray resonant diffraction can access chiral properties related to the dipole-quadrupole (E1-E2) channel via an interference with the pure quadrupole-quadrupole (E2-E2) process. This is also confirmed by independent ab initio numerical simulations. In such a way, it becomes possible to detect chiral quantities in systems where dichroic absorption techniques are ineffective.     

Co-substitution effects on the Fe valence in the BaFe2As2 superconducting compound: a study of hard x-ray absorption spectroscopy

The Fe K x-ray absorption near edge structure of BaFe(2-x)Co(x)As(2) superconductors was investigated. No appreciable alteration in shape or energy position of this edge was observed with Co substitution. This result provides experimental support to previous ab initio calculations in which the extra Co electron is concentrated at the substitute site and do not change the electronic occupation of the Fe ions. Superconductivity may emerge due to bonding modifications induced by the substitute atom that weakens the spin-density-wave ground state by reducing the Fe local moments and/or increasing the elastic energy penalty of the accompanying orthorhombic distortion.     

The electronic structure of lithium metagallate

Herein we present a study of the electronic structure of lithium metagallate (LiGaO(2)), a material of interest in the field of optoelectronics. We use soft x-ray spectroscopy to probe the electronic structure of both the valence and conduction bands and compare our measurements to ab initio density functional theory calculations. We use several different exchange-correlation functionals, but find that no single theoretical approach used herein accurately quantifies both the band gap and the Ga 3d(10) states in LiGaO(2). We derive a band gap of 5.6 eV, and characterize electron hybridization in both the valence and conduction bands. Our study of the x-ray spectra may prove useful in analysing spectra from more complicated LiGaO(2) heterostructures.     

Static, dynamic and electronic properties of expanded fluid mercury in the metal-nonmetal transition range. An ab initio study

Fluid Hg undergoes a metal-nonmetal (M-NM) transition when expanded toward a density of around 9 g cm(-3). We have performed ab initio molecular dynamics simulations for several thermodynamic states around the M-NM transition range and the associated static, dynamic and electronic properties have been analyzed. The calculated static structure shows a good agreement with the available experimental data. It is found that the volume expansion decreases the number of nearest neighbors from 10 (near the triple point) to around 8 at the M-NM transition region. Moreover, these neighbors are arranged into two subshells and the decrease in the number of neighbors occurs in the inner subshell. The calculated dynamic structure factors agree fairly well with their experimental counterparts obtained by inelastic x-ray scattering experiments, which display inelastic side peaks. The derived dispersion relation exhibits some positive dispersion for all the states, although its value around the M-NM transition region is not as marked as suggested by the experiment. We have also calculated the electronic density of states, which shows the appearance of a gap at a density of around 8.3 g cm(-3).     

Frequency shift of the cesium clock transition due to blackbody radiation

We perform ab initio calculations of the frequency shift induced by a static electric field on the cesium clock hyperfine transition. The calculations are used to find the frequency shifts due to blackbody radiation. Our result [deltanu/E2=-2.26(2)x10(-10) Hz/(V/m)2] is in good agreement with early measurements and ab initio calculations performed in other groups. We present arguments against recent claims that the actual value of the effect might be smaller. The difference (approximately 10%) between ab initio and semiempirical calculations is due to the contribution of the continuum spectrum in the sum over intermediate states.     

Contact transparency of nanotube-molecule-nanotube junctions

The transparency of contacts between conjugated molecules and metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes is investigated using a single-particle Green's function method which combines a Landauer approach with ab initio density functional theory. We find that the overall conjugation required for good contact transparency is broken by connecting through a six-member ring on the tube. Full conjugation achieved by an all-carbon contact through a five-member ring leads to near perfect contact transparency for different conjugated molecular bridges.