Optimization of effective atom centered potentials for london dispersion forces in density functional theory

We add an effective atom-centered nonlocal term to the exchange-correlation potential in order to cure the lack of London dispersion forces in standard density functional theory. Calibration of this long-range correction is performed using density functional perturbation theory and an arbitrary reference. Without any prior assignment of types and structures of molecular fragments, our corrected generalized gradient approximation density functional theory calculations yield correct equilibrium geometries and dissociation energies of argon-argon, benzene-benzene, graphite-graphite, and argon-benzene complexes.     

Quantum-mechanical calculations based on density functional theory

The basic concepts of density functional theory (DFT) together with the local density approximation (LDA) and the recent improvement in form of the generalized gradient approximations (GGA) are discussed. Band structure calculations using the full-potential linearized augmented plane wave (FP-LAPW) method are presented in relation to pseudopotential schemes both corresponding to T=0. For finite temperatures the most advanced technique is the Car-Parrinello (CP) molecular dynamics (MD) approach, e.g. in its projector augmented wave (PAW) implementation. In CP-MD simulations nuclear motion and the electronic degrees of freedom are treated within one formalism. Such DFT calculations are illustrated for selected examples, including the breathing mode of BaBiO₃. the phase transition in SrTiO₃ and VO₂ and the Li diffusion in the superionic conductor Li₃N studied by conventional and CP molecular dynamics.     

Geometric theory of columnar phases on curved substrates

We study thin self-assembled columns constrained to lie on a curved, rigid substrate. The curvature presents no local obstruction to equally spaced columns in contrast with curved crystals for which the crystalline bonds are frustrated. Instead, the vanishing compressional strain of the columns implies that their normals lie on geodesics which converge (diverge) in regions of positive (negative) Gaussian curvature, in analogy to the focusing of light rays by a lens. We show that the out of plane bending of the cylinders acts as an effective ordering field.     

Critical assessment of mean field models based on effective interactions

Mean field schemes, from simple Hartree—Fock plus random phase approximation calculations of the ground and excited states to more sophisticated approaches which include pairing as well, have been popular for quite a long time. In these models, the input is an effective interaction. We still lack a precise link between this interaction and a more fundamental theory; however, there have been various new recent attempts to correlate empirical pieces of evidence about nuclear (and neutron) matter, or experimental results, with the properties of the effective interactions. In this contribution, we claim that, while we have indeed made some progress in our understanding of certain features of the interactions, we are still missing a clue about its proper density dependence and about its isovector properties. The text was submitted by the author in English.     

硅团簇自旋电子器件的理论研究

利用过渡金属掺杂的硅基团簇, 构建了一种自旋分子结; 并利用第一性原理方法, 对其电子自旋极化输运性质进行了研究. 计算表明, 通过过渡金属掺杂可以有效地产生自旋极化电流, 磁性金属Fe和非磁性金属Cr和Mn掺杂的体系呈现出较明显的自旋极化透射现象, 但分子结的自旋极化输运能力与团簇孤立状态下的磁矩无一致性.从Sc到Ni的掺杂, 体系的自旋极化透射能力先增大后迅速减小, 在Fe掺杂的Si₁₂团簇中出现最大值. 关键词： 硅团簇 自旋极化输运 密度泛函理论 非平衡格林函数     

Novel surface tension isotherm for surfactants based on local density functional theory

In this Letter we report a new general method for calculating of surface tension isotherms in the presence of surfactants, based on a local density functional. We illustrate this method by deriving the interfacial tension isotherm for nonionic surfactants at an air-water or oil-water interface by using the self-consistent field theory of polymer brushes. We consider a particular case of local density functional to calculate explicitly how the interfacial tension and the surfactant adsorption depend on the surfactant bulk concentration. Experimental data for the surface tension and the surfactant adsorption isotherm for nonionic surfactants were interpreted with the help of the new isotherm. Very good agreement between the adsorption of n-dodecyl pentaoxyethylene glycol ether (C12E5) at an air-water interface, calculated from the surface tension isotherm and small-angle neutron-scattering is obtained.     

First-principles simulations for attosecond photoelectron spectroscopy based on time-dependent density functional theory

We develop a first-principles simulation method for attosecond time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy. This method enables us to directly simulate the whole experimental processes, including excitation, emission and detection on equal footing. To examine the performance of the method, we use it to compute the reconstruction of attosecond beating by interference of two-photon transitions (RABBITT) experiments of gas-phase Argon. The computed RABBITT photoionization delay is in very good agreement with recent experimental results from [Klünder et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 143002 (2011)] and [Guénot et al., Phys. Rev. A 85, 053424 (2012)]. This indicates the significance of a fully-consistent theoretical treatment of the whole measurement process to properly describe experimental observables in attosecond photoelectron spectroscopy. The present framework opens the path to unravel the microscopic processes underlying RABBITT spectra in more complex materials and nanostructures.     

基于密度泛函理论的单层氢化石墨烯特性分析

本文采用密度泛函理论的第一性原理方法,研究了不同尺寸H-graphene的稳定性、HOMO-LU-MO能隙以及电子激发态.研究结果表明,对于C_(16)H_(10)、C_(30)H_(14)、C_(48)H_(18)、C_(70)H_(22)、C_(96)H_(26)、C_(126)H_(30)计算的比结合能,C_(126)H_(30)相比C_(16)H_(10)的比结合能增长23.9%,且比结合能随着H-graphene尺寸扩大而增加,意味着稳定性不断提高.通过对HOMO-LUMO能隙分析发现,在较小尺寸的H-graphene中,由于量子效应起主要作用,因此出现了较大的HOMO-LUMO能隙,且随着H-graphene团簇尺寸的增加,能隙逐渐缩小可以看出,对于无限大的H-graphene团簇中,HOMO-LUMO能隙无限趋近于零(相当于零带隙),其电子性质与纯石墨烯相似.通过分析C_(16)H_(10)、C_(30)H_(14)、C_(48)H_(18)、C_(70)H_(22)激发态以及了吸收光谱,发现随着尺寸的扩大,吸收光谱发生红移,为石墨烯在电子器件领域的应用提供理论基础.     

基于含时密度泛函理论的表面等离激元研究进展

纳米粒子的局域表面等离激元(LSP)由于其新颖的光学特性成为目前国内外研究的热点之一. 本文利用含时密度泛函理论(TDDFT)对金属团簇及石墨烯纳米结构中的等离激元激发及调制的物理本质进行了研究. 和宏观大小的材料相比, 由于纳米结构的尺寸和量子受限效应, 纳米结构的等离激元具有一些不同的特征. 在低能共振区, 光谱线发生展宽, 并且发生劈裂. 由于纳米单体间的电磁耦合作用, 使聚合的纳米结构表现出了与单体不同的光学性质. 这些结果为等离激元的调控提供了坚实的理论指导.     

基于密度泛函理论的CO2吸附微观机理比较研究

为探究吸附法捕获CO₂过程中的微观机理和吸附剂材料间的作用关系,基于密度泛函理论方法,综合比较了典型吸附剂包括煤基官能团、Fe、限域离子液体、Na₂CO₃、SrTiO₃与CO₂的吸附过程和差异性.根据不同计算策略,着重分析比较了吸附能、结构优化参数、吸附构型以及原子分布等参数.结果表明,化学吸附中CO₂分子与吸附面呈平行关系时通常吸附能最大;在一种材料的同类型官能团中,吸附能大小与氧原子的数量呈正相关关系;吸附过程中C-O键的伸长活化会生成一种重要的中间产物CO₂^-.提出在探寻CO₂吸附材料时可以在含氧原子较多的官能团、活性金属表面等方面进一步探究.最后对基于密度泛函理论的CO₂的吸附机理的进一步研究方向进行了展望.     

基于密度泛函理论的叶绿素A性质的研究

在液相环境中,采用密度泛函理论(DFT)、含时密度泛函理论(TD-DFT)、Multiwfn波函数分析软件,在pbepbe/6-311g(d)基组水平上,计算并分析了叶绿素A的结构、紫外光谱和电子—空穴分布,结果表明:pbepbe/6-311g(d)方法是计算叶绿素A紫外吸收光谱更精确的方法;叶绿素A分子的吡咯环与取代基相互作用的过程中,吡咯环Ⅳ受侧链"尾巴"的影响最大;理论计算的紫外光谱与实验数据吻合较好,其中635.71 nm和446.87 nm处的两个吸收峰可认为是叶绿素A的特征吸收峰;侧链或取代基团在叶绿素A激发过程中是给电子体,卟啉"头"既是电子供体,也是电子受体.     

Microscopic density functional theory of wetting and drying of a solid substrate by an explicit solvent model of ionic solutions

Classical density functional theory (DFT) of inhomogeneous fluids is applied to an explicit solvent ‘semi-primitive’ model (SPM) of ionic solutions to investigate the influence of ionic solutes on the wetting behaviour of a solvent in contact with a neutral or charged planar substrate. The SPM is made up of three species of hard sphere particles with different diameters, interacting via an attractive Yukawa potential to model excluded volume and cohesion. The solvent particles are neutral, while the monovalent anions and cations are oppositely charged. The polar nature of the solvent is modelled by a continuum dielectric permittivity linked to the local solvent density. All three species interact with the impenetrable substrate via an attractive external potential. While excluded volume effects are accurately described by a Rosenfeld ‘fundamental measure’ free energy functional, the short range Yukawa attraction and Coulombic interactions are treated within the mean-field approximation. The ionic solutes are found to have a significant impact on the wetting behaviour of the solvent, in particular on the wetting temperature. Strong electric fields, or long-ranged (weakly screened) Coulombic forces are shown to have the propensity to change the wetting transition from second to first order. The cation–anion size asymmetry leads to charge separation on the liquid–vapour interface of the solution, which in turn can induce a drying transition on the liquid side of liquid–vapour coexistence.     

Development of electron-proton density functionals for multicomponent density functional theory

We present a strategy for the development of electron-proton density functionals in multicomponent density functional theory, treating electrons and selected nuclei quantum mechanically without the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. An electron-proton functional is derived using an explicitly correlated electron-proton pair density. This functional provides accurate hydrogen nuclear densities, thereby enabling reliable calculations of molecular properties. This approach is potentially applicable to relatively large molecular systems with key hydrogen nuclei treated quantum mechanically.     

Instability of a system and its estimation in terms of the hybrid density functional theory method: a magnetic effective density functional (MEDF) approach

Potential curves and high and low spin energy gaps for radical clusters were calculated by spin polarized molecular orbital methods. Through-space effective exchange integrals (J _ab) and relative energies of spin projected low spin states by post-Hartree-Fock (HF) calculation were reproduced by the hybrid density functional theory (DFT) method. The hybrid parameters that could reproduce post-HF values such as UCCSD(T)'s for each model had close relations with the instabilities of those systems. Information entropy and related chemical indices were used to estimate the magnitude of the instabilities. A magnetic effective density functional (MEDF) scheme for spin clusters was proposed for practical computation of J _ab values in molecular magnetic materials.     

Efficient formalism for large-scale ab initio molecular dynamics based on time-dependent density functional theory

A new "on the fly" method to perform Born-Oppenheimer ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations is presented. Inspired by Ehrenfest dynamics in time-dependent density functional theory, the electronic orbitals are evolved by a Schr?dinger-like equation, where the orbital time derivative is multiplied by a parameter. This parameter controls the time scale of the fictitious electronic motion and speeds up the calculations with respect to standard Ehrenfest dynamics. In contrast with other methods, wave function orthogonality needs not be imposed as it is automatically preserved, which is of paramount relevance for large-scale AIMD simulations.     

Large-scale atomistic simulations of nanostructured materials based on divide-and-conquer density functional theory

A linear-scaling algorithm based on a divide-and-conquer (DC) scheme is designed to perform large-scale molecular-dynamics simulations, in which interatomic forces are computed quantum mechanically in the framework of the density functional theory (DFT). This scheme is applied to the thermite reaction at an Al/Fe₂O₃ interface. It is found that mass diffusion and reaction rate at the interface are enhanced by a concerted metal-oxygen flip mechanism. Preliminary simulations are carried out for an aluminum particle in water based on the conventional DFT, as a target system for large-scale DC-DFT simulations. A pair of Lewis acid and base sites on the aluminum surface preferentially catalyzes hydrogen production in a low activation-barrier mechanism found in the simulations.