通过金属化σ电子寻找新的高温超导体

提高超导相变温度是超导基础研究的一个重要目标,也是超导广泛应用的一个前提。在高温超导微观机理尚不清楚的情况下,寻找高温超导体一般是通过对材料施加高压或通过掺杂使材料尽可能地接近反铁磁或其他量子不稳定点来实现。这篇文章介绍的是一种通过金属化σ电子能带来提高超导相变温度的方法。这种方法之所以有效,能够提高发现新的高温超导体的概率,是因为σ电子与声子之间通常存在很强的相互作用,可以显著增强电子的超导配对能,从而提升超导相变温度。作者以具体材料为例介绍了金属化σ能带的几种可行途径,并介绍了他们最近预言的两个相变温度可能超过50 K的超导体Li₃B₄C₂与Li₂B₃C的晶体及电子结构。     

The effects of Zn vacancies on ferromagnetism in Cu-doped ZnO films controlled by oxygen pressure and Li doping

Zn0.99Cu0.01O films were studied experimentally and theoretically.The films were prepared by pulsed-laser deposi tion on Pt(111)/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates under various oxygen pressures to investigate the growth-dependence of the ferromag netic properties.The structural,magnetic,and optical properties were studied,and it was found that all the samples possess a typical wurtzite structure,and that the films exhibit room-temperature ferromagnetism.The sample deposited at 600℃and an oxygen pressure of 10 Pa showed a large saturation magnetization of 0.83μB/Cu.The enhanced ferromagnetism in the(Cu,Li)-codoped ZnO is attributable to the existence of Zn vacancies(VZn),as shown by first-principles calcu lations.The photoluminescence analysis demonstrated the existence of V Zn in both Zn0.99Cu0.01O and(Cu,Li)-codoped ZnO thin films,and this plays an important role in the increase of ferromagnetism,according to the results of first-principles calculations.     

The first principles investigation of ferrite magnetic response with mismatch stress

The quasi-ferrite model is proposed and an appropriate PBE exchange functional with the spin density functional theory(SDFT) is selected for the calculation of the relation between magnetic moment and residual stress in ferrite using a quantum mechanics code. The relationship between ferrite magnetism and the carbon content is determined,and then a ferrite interstitial solid solution(ISS) model in a low carbon concentration state is replaced with an α- Fe model in the case of majority magnetic calculation. The band structure of the loaded-Fe is compared with that of the unloaded α-Fe. The comparison shows that the energy of Fe atomic 3d orbital changes a little,while the energy of electron orbital of iron core below 3d almost keeps unchanged. The relationship between the magnetic moment and the stress appears intermittent due to the Bragg total reflection. The change in the magnetic moment due to lattice mismatch is much larger than that caused by mechanical loading.     

Nitrogen-doped graphene as an excellent candidate for selective gas sensing

The toxic gases,such as CO and NO,are highly dangerous to human health and even cause the death of person and animals in a tiny amount.Therefore,it is very necessary to develop the toxic gas sensors that can instantly monitor these gases.In this work,we have used the first-principles calculations to investigate adsorption of gases on defective graphene nanosheets to seek a suitable material for CO sensing.Result indicates that the vancancy graphene can not selectivly sense CO from air,because O2 in air would disturb the sensing signals of graphene for CO,while the nitrogen-doped graphene is an excellent candidate for selectivly sensing CO from air,because only CO can be chemisorbed on the pyridinic-like N-doped graphene accompanying with a large charge transfer,which can serve as a useful electronic signal for CO sensing.Even in the environment with NO,the N-doped graphene can also detect CO selectively.Therefore,the N-doped graphene is an excellent material for selectively sensing CO,which provides useful information for the design and fabrication of the CO sensors.     

The Two-Dimensional Electrides XONa (X=Mg,Ca) as Novel Natural Hyperbolic Materials

In two-dimensional electrides, anionic electrons are spatially confined in interlayer regions with high density, comparable to metals, and they are highly mobile, just as free electrons, resembling hyperbolic metamaterials with metal-dielectric multilayered structures. In this work, two-dimensional electride materials MgONa and CaONa are proposed as good natural hyperbolic materials. By using the first-principles calculations based on density functional theory (DFT), the electronic structures, stabilities, and optical properties of two-dimensional electride materials XONa (X=Mg, Ca) are investigated. Our results show that they are stable in 1-monolayer (1-ML) structures as well as in bulk states. They exhibit hyperbolic dispersions from visible to near infrared spectral range with high qualities up to about 700, which is two orders-of-magnitude larger than the preceding bulk hyperbolic materials. Numerical results reveal that they exhibit negative refraction with low losses. Their high-quality hyperbolic responses over a wide spectral range pave the way of broad photonic applications as natural hyperbolic materials.     

基于数值原子轨道基组的第一性原理计算软件ABACUS

随着超级计算机硬件和数值算法迅速发展, 使得目前利用密度泛函理论研究上千个原子体系的电子能带和结构等性质变得可行. 数值原子轨道基组由于其基组较小和局域等特性, 可以很好地与电子结构计算中的线性标度算法等的新算法结合, 用来研究较大尺寸的物理体系. 本文详细介绍了一款中国科学技术大学量子信息重点 实验室自主开发的基于数值原子轨道基组的第一性原理计算软件 Atomic-orbital Based Ab-initio Computation at UStc. 大量的测试结果表明: 该软件具有很好的准确性和较高的并行效率, 可以用于包含1000个原子左右的系统的电子结构和原子结构的研究以及分子动力学模拟计算.     

The evolution of polarization inside ultrathin PbTiO3 films: a theoretical study

How to control the material properties by manipulating the unitcell thickness is crucial for applications of ferroelectric ultrathin films. To understand the polarization behaviour of ultrathin PbTiO₃ (PTO) films grown on SrTiO₃ (STO) substrate, we have systematically explored the strength and direction of polarization in each unitcell layer, using density functional theory combined with Born effective charge method. Strikingly, we find that the polar state of ultrathin PTO films is a composite result depending not only on thickness but also on boundary condition, initial polarization direction, etc. Besides, we also studied the surface effect on the polarization in the thicker PTO films for comparison with the ultrathin ones, which suggests that the surface effect is basically confined in a small range (3–5 unitcells thick at surface region) no matter what kinds of surface terminations and polarization directions.     

First principles study of Ca in BaTiO3 and Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3

BaTiO₃–Bi_0.5Na_0.5TiO₃ is one of the promising candidates as a high-temperature relaxor with a high Curie temperature and several preferred dielectric characteristics. It has been found experimentally for a long time that adding calcium to BaTiO₃–Bi_0.5Na_0.5TiO₃ improves its temperature characteristic of the capacitance [J. Electron. Mater. 39, 2471]. In this study, Calcium (Ca) defects in perovskite BaTiO₃ and Bi_0.5Na_0.5TiO₃ have been studied based on first-principles calculations. In both BaTiO₃ and Bi_0.5Na_0.5TiO₃, our calculations showed that Ca atom energetically prefers to substitute for the cations, that is Ba, Bi, Na and Ti, depending on the growth conditions. In most cases, Ca predominantly substitutes on the A-site without providing additional electrical carriers (serve as either neutral defects or self-compensating defects). The growth conditions where Ca can be forced to substitute for B-site (with limited amount) and the conditions where Ca can be forced to serve as an acceptor are identified. Details of the local structures, formation energies and electronic properties of these Ca defects are reported.