Structural, elastic, vibrational and electronic properties of amorphous Al2O3 from ab initio calculations

First-principles molecular dynamics calculations of the structural, elastic, vibrational and electronic properties of amorphous Al(2)O(3), in a system consisting of a supercell of 80 atoms, are reported. A detailed analysis of the interatomic correlations allows us to conclude that the short-range order is mainly composed of AlO(4) tetrahedra, but, in contrast with previous results, also an important number of AlO(6) octahedra and AlO(5) units are present. The vibrational density of states presents two frequency bands, related to bond-bending and bond-stretching modes. It also shows other recognizable features present in similar amorphous oxides. We also present the calculation of elastic properties (bulk modulus and shear modulus). The calculated electronic structure of the material, including total and partial electronic density of states, charge distribution, electron localization function and the ionicity for each species, gives evidence of correlation between the ionicity and the coordination for each Al atom.     

Structural and electronic properties of endohedral doped SWCNTs: A DFT study

The structural and electronic properties of semiconductors (Si and Ge) and metal (Au and Tl) atoms doped armchair (n, n) and zigzag (n, 0); n=4–6, single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) have been studied using an ab-initio method. We have considered a linear chain of dopant atoms inside CNTs of different diameters but of same length. We have studied variation of B.E./atom, ionization potential, electron affinity and HOMO–LUMO gap of doped armchair and zigzag CNTs with diameter and dopant type. For armchair undoped CNTs, the B.E./atom increases with the increase in diameter of the tubes. For Si, Ge and Tl doped CNTs, B.E./atom is maximum for (6, 6) CNT whereas for Au doped CNTs, it is maximum for (5, 5) CNTs. For pure CNTs, IP decreases slightly with increasing diameter whereas EA increases with diameter. The study of HOMO–LUMO gap shows that on doping metallic character of the armchair CNTs increases whereas for zigzag CNTs semiconducting character increases. In case of zigzag tubes only Si doped (5, 0), (6, 0) and Ge doped (6, 0) CNTs are stable. The IP and EA for doped zigzag CNTs remain almost independent of tube diameter and dopant type whereas for doped armchair CNTs, maximum IP and EA are observed for (5, 5) tube for all dopants.     

Phonon vibrational frequencies and elastic properties of solid SrFCl. An ab initio study

The phonon vibrational frequencies, electronic and elastic properties of SrFCl, one of the members of the alkaline-earth fluorohalide family crystallizing with the PbFCl-type structure, have been investigated, for the first time, at the ab initio level, by using the periodic CRYSTAL program. Both Hartree-Fock (HF) and density functional theory (DFT) Hamiltonians have been used, with the latter in its local density, gradient-corrected (PW91), and hybrid (B3LYP) versions. The structural and elastic properties are in good agreement with experiment, with the exception of those calculated within the local density approximation, which were found to be systematically under-estimated (distances) or over-estimated (elastic properties). As regards the phonon frequencies, B3LYP and PW91 provide excellent results, the mean absolute difference with respect to the experimental Raman data being 4.1% and 3.6%, respectively.     

First principles study on magnetic and electronic properties with rare-earth atoms doped SWCNTs

The adsorptions of rare-earth (RE) atoms on (6, 0) and (8, 0) single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) have been investigated by using the first-principles pseudopotential plane wave method within density functional theory (DFT). The binding energy, Mulliken charge, magnetic properties, band structure and DOS were calculated and analyzed. Most of RE atoms including Nd, Sm and Eu have a magnetic ground state with a significant magnetic moment. Some electrons transfer between RE-5d, 6s and C-2p orbitals. Owing to the curvature effect, the values of binding energy for RE atoms doped (6, 0) SWCNT are lower than those of the same atoms on (8, 0) SWCNT. The pictures of DOS show that hybridizations between RE-5d, 6s states and C-2p orbitals and between RE-4f and C-2p orbitals appear near the Fermi level. Results indicate that the properties of SWCNTs can be modified by the adsorptions of RE atoms.     

Pressure-induced phase transition and electronic properties of AlN nanowires: an ab initio study

The structural stability of AlN nanowires have been analyzed in wurtzite (B4), zincblende (B3), rocksalt (B1) and CsCl (B2) type phases using density functional theory based ab initio approach. The total energy calculations have been performed in a self-consistent manner using local density approximation as exchange correlation functional. The analysis finds the B4 type phase as most stable amongst the other phases taken into consideration and observes the structural phase transition from B4?→?B3, B4?→?B1, B4?→?B2, B3?→?B1 and B3?→?B2 at 42.7, 76.54, 142, 30.4 and 108.9?GPa respectively. Lattice parameter, bulk modulus and pressure derivatives of AlN nanowires have also been calculated for all the stable phases. The electronic band structure analysis of AlN nanowires shows a semiconducting nature in its B4, B3 and B1 type phases, whereas the B2 type phase is found to be metallic.     

Structural,elastic and thermodynamic properties of tetragonal and orthorhombic polymorphs of Sr2GeN2: an ab initio investigation

The structural, elastic and thermodynamic properties of the α (tetragonal) and β (orthorhombic) polymorphs of the Sr₂GeN₂ compound have been examined in detail using ab initio density functional theory pseudopotential plane-wave calculations. Apart the structural properties at the ambient conditions, all present reported results are predicted for the first time. The calculated equilibrium lattice parameters and inter-atomic bond-lengths of the considered polymorphs are in good agreement with the available experimental data. It is found that α-Sr₂GeN₂ is energetically more stable than β-Sr₂GeN₂. The two examined polymorphs are very similar in their crystal structures and have almost identical local environments. The single-crystal and polycrystalline elastic parameters and related properties – including elastic constants, bulk, shear and Young’s moduli, Poisson’s ratio, anisotropy indexes, Pugh’s criterion, elastic wave velocities and Debye temperature – have been predicted. Temperature and pressure dependence of some macroscopic properties – including the unit-cell volume, bulk modulus, volume thermal expansion coefficient, heat capacity and Debye temperature – have been evaluated using ab initio calculations combined with the quasi-harmonic Debye model.     

An ab initio study of the structural,elastic, electronic and optical properties of the newly synthesized nitridoaluminate LiCaAlN2

The structural parameters, elastic constants, electronic structure and optical properties of the recently reported monoclinic quaternary nitridoaluminate LiCaAlN₂ are investigated in detail using the ab initio plane-wave pseudopotential method within the generalized gradient approximation. The calculated equilibrium structural parameters are in excellent agreement with the experimental data, which validate the reliability of the applied theoretical method. The chemical and structural stabilities of LiCaAlN₂ are confirmed by calculating the cohesion energy and enthalpy of formation. Chemical band stiffness is calculated to explain the pressure dependence of the lattice parameters. Through the band structure calculation, LiCaAlN₂ is predicted to be an indirect band gap of 2.725 eV. The charge-carrier effective masses are estimated from the band structure dispersions. The frequency-dependent dielectric function, absorption coefficient, refractive index, extinction coefficient, reflectivity coefficient and electron energy loss function spectra are calculated for polarized incident light in a wide energy range. Optical spectra exhibit a noticeable anisotropy. Single-crystal and polycrystalline elastic constants and related properties, including isotropic sound velocities and Debye temperatures, are numerically estimated. The calculated elastic constants and elastic compliances are used to analyse and visualize the elastic anisotropy of LiCaAlN₂. The calculated elastic constants demonstrate the mechanical stability and brittle behaviour of the considered material.     

An ab initio study of vibrational corrections to the electrical properties of ethylene

Accurate SCF and MP2 quartic property hypersurfaces have been computed for the energy, quadrupole moment and polarizability tensor of ethylene to obtain zero-point vibrational corrections to the properties. Coupled with accurate electrical properties computed at a high level correlated r _e geometry, using a range of correlated methods, especially BD and BD(T), along with a number of purpose-built polarized basis sets, definitive estimates have been made of these properties that incorporate the effects of vibrational averaging. The effect of deuterium substitution on the properties was investigated, and the frequency dependence of the polarizability tensor was studied also. Careful attention has been paid to a critical comparison between these theoretical estimates and experimental measurements, and agreement between the two is shown to be exceptionally good. In particular, it is possible to resolve the disagreement between recent theoretical calculations and experimental measurements of the Cotton–Mouton constant. The results focus attention on both the general utility of the present method, and the necessity to allow for the effects of zero-point vibrational averaging when comparing theory with experiment, or even when comparing different theoretical results with one another using experiment as a benchmark.     

An ab initio study of vibrational corrections to the electrical properties of ethane

SCF quartic property hypersurfaces have been computed for the energy, quadrupole moment and polarizability tensor of ethane via finite differences of analytical derivatives to obtain zeropoint vibrational corrections to the properties. Coupled with accurate electrical properties computed at a correlated r _e geometry, using a range of correlated methods, especially BD and BD(T), excellent estimates of these properties have been obtained that incorporate the effects of vibrational averaging. The effect of deuterium substitution on the properties has been investigated, including the first known theoretical prediction of the dipole moment of CH₃CD₃, and the frequency dependence of the polarizability tensor and Rayleigh depolarization ratio have been examined. Careful attention has been paid to a critical comparison between these theoretical estimates and experimental measurements. Although the vibrational corrections are limited to SCF theory, and basis sets not as extensive as used in some studies of this kind, nevertheless the results can be compared quantitatively with experiment, and the agreement is found to be excellent. The results underline the necessity to allow for the effects of zero-point vibrational averaging when comparing theory with experiment, and suggest a viable approach for studies on larger molecules.     

Doping in silicon nanocrystals: An ab initio study of the structural, electronic and optical properties

There are experimental evidences that doping control at the nanoscale can significantly modify the optical properties with respect to the pure systems. This is the case of silicon nanocrystals (Si-nc), for which it has been shown that the photoluminescence (PL) peak can be tuned also below the bulk Si band gap by properly controlling the impurities, for example by boron (B) and phosphorus (P) codoping. In this work, we report on an ab initio study of impurity states in Si-nc. We consider B and P substitutional impurities for Si-nc with a diameter up to 2.2 nm. Formation energies (FEs), electronic, optical and structural properties have been determined as a function of the cluster dimension. For both B-doped and P-doped Si-nc the FE increases on decreasing the dimension, showing that the substitutional doping gets progressively more difficult for the smaller nanocrystals. Moreover, subsurface impurity positions result to be the most stable ones. The codoping reduces the FE strongly favoring this process with respect to the simple n-doping or p-doping. Such an effect can be attributed to charge compensation between the donor and the acceptor atoms. Moreover, smaller structural deformations, with respect to n-doped and p-doped cases, localized only around the impurity sites are observed. The band gap and the optical threshold are largely reduced with respect to the undoped Si-nc showing the possibility of an impurity-based engineering of the Si-nc PL properties.     

The electronic structure of the azabenzenes an ab initio MO-SCF-LCAO study

Ab initio MO-SCF-LCAO calculations have been carried out for benzene and the azabenzenes pyridine, pyridazine, pyrimidine, pyrazine, s-triazine and s-tetrazine, and the results are presented.The general structure of the molecular orbitals is discussed and a classification scheme referring to an ideal case of cylindrical symmetry is described. Orbital energies, empirically corrected for reorganization and correlation, have been used to make assignments for the photoelectron spectra. A number of molecular properties have been computed and are discussed in relation to available experimental information.The electrostatic potential around each molecule is presented in the form of contour maps. Each nitrogen lone pair gives rise to a region of negative potential. The depths of these minima give some information about the relation between electronic structure and basicity. The potential in regions of high π-electron density is negative only in benzene and pyridine. This fact can be correlated with the increasing resistance against direct electrophilic substitution for the azabenzenes as compared to benzene itself.The calculations have been performed using contracted Gaussian functions as a basis. Four s- and two p-type atomic orbitals were used for carbon and nitrogen, whereas for hydrogen two s- and one pσ-type functions were used.     

An ab initio study of the vibrational properties of alkaline-earth metal nitrates and their crystallohydrates

The vibrational frequencies and corresponding intensities have been calculated ab initio for the center of the Brillouin zone of crystalline magnesium, calcium, strontium, and barium nitrates; magnesium nitrate hexahydrate; and calcium nitrate tetrahydrate. The calculation has been performed within the electron- density functional theory using the PBE exchange-correlation functional in the basis of localized atomic orbitals with the aid of the CRYSTAL14 software. The calculated values and the experimental IR and Raman spectral data on strontium and barium nitrates are shown to be in satisfactory agreement. The frequencies of normal long-wavelength vibrations in the nitrates become red-shifted with an increase in the cation atomic mass. The occurrence of several peaks due to the vibrations of hydrogen atoms in water molecules with different dynamic charges is predicted in the IR spectrum of hexahydrate magnesium in the frequency range above 3430 cm^–1.