Ab-Initio Simulation Laboratory

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We investigate the structural, electronic, and optical properties of hydrogen-passivated silicon nanowires along [110] and [111] directions with diameter d up to 4.2 nm from first principles. The size and orientation dependence of the band gap is investigated and the local-density gap is corrected with the GW approximation. Quantum confinement becomes significant for d<2.2 nm, where the dielectric function exhibits strong anisotropy and new low-energy absorption peaks start to appear in the imaginary part of the dielectric function for polarization along the wire axis.

Previous energetic considerations have led to the belief that carbon nanotubes (CNTs) of 4 Angstrom in diameter are the smallest stable CNTs. Using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, we find that a stable 3 Angstrom CNT can be grown inside a multiwalled carbon nanotube. Density functional calculations indicate that the 3 Angstrom CNT is the armchair CNT(2,2) with a radial breathing mode at 787 cm(-1). Each end can be capped by half of a C(12) cage (hexagonal prism) containing tetragons.

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Hydrogenation-induced metal-semiconductor transitions usually occur in simple systems based on rare earths and/or magnesium, accompanied by major reconstructions of the metal host (atom shifts >2 Angstrom). We report on the first such transition in a quaternary system based on a transition element. Metallic LaMg2Ni absorbs hydrogen near ambient conditions, forming the nonmetallic hydride LaMg2NiH7 which has a nearly unchanged metal host structure (atom shifts <0.7 Angstrom). The transition is induced by a charge transfer of conduction electrons into tetrahedral [NiH4](4-) complexes having closed-shell electron configurations.

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The adsorption and desorption of stilbene on Ag/Ge(111)-(root 3 x root 3)R30 degrees (Ag/Ge(111)-root 3) were investigated using low-energy electron diffraction (LEED), scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), temperature-programmed desorption (TPD), and density functional theory (I)FT). Both trans- and cis-stilbenes form a (2 x 1) overlayer structure on Ag/Ge(111)-root 3 at a coverage of similar to 1 ML. The STM images show parallel strips with three equivalent directions, indicating a self-ordered molecular structure. At a coverage of less than I ML, the TPD of cis-stilbene shows only one peak, attributed to submonolayer desorption. The TPD peaks are indistinguishable for desorption of trans-stilbene from the surface submonolayer and multilayer. This is due to the simultaneous desorption and/or thinning of adsorbed multilayers during the TPD process, as determined from the STM analysis of adsorbed trans-stilbene structures before and after annealing. The TPD traces fit the half-order kinetics for molecular desorption of stilbene from Ag/Ge(111)-root 3 with desorption energies of 20.1 (cis-) and 21.3 kcal/mol (trans-), which are comparable with the calculated values using the DFT method. A plausible explanation for the stilbene desorption process on Ag/Ge(111)-root 3 is proposed and discussed.

We have studied the properties of quantum well states in supported Ag(100) films on the Fe substrate by first-principles density-functional calculations. The energies of these quantum well states as a function of thickness N are examined in terms of the characteristic phase shift of the electronic wave function at the interface. These energy-dependent phase shifts are determined numerically for both the film-substrate and film-vacuum interfaces. It is also found that the substrate has a major effect on film stability, enhancing the stability of the N=5 film and reversing that of the N=2 film.

We demonstrate a direct surface structural tool with high resolution of approximately 1 angstrom in all directions by direct Fourier transformation of measured Kikuchi patterns using a multiple-energy phase-summing method. In this method, with an integral over continuous energy spectra in each direction, both the forward- and backward-scattering oscillations are selected for Fourier transformation by varying the energy range and size of the grid. High-fidelity and artifact-free three-dimensional images of Ag atoms for (100) and (111) single-crystal surfaces are obtained.

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A multiple-energy phase-summing method is applied to diffuse low-energy electron diffraction intensity spectra to obtain three-dimensional images of surface atoms. In this demonstration, calculated DLEED intensity spectra from a multiple scattering method are directly inverted to produce high-fidelity 3D images of near-neighbor atoms measured from an adatom. No prior knowledge of adsorption site, bond length, bond angle, or type of atom is needed. The images are essentially free from artifacts and have a spatial resolution of approximately 1 angstrom when viewed along any cut-plane. These results demonstrate that holographic DLEED has the potential of being an accurate and direct structural tool for low-density disordered adsorption systems.

We demonstrate that two-dimensionally resolved diffuse low-energy electron diffraction intensities can be measured with sufficient accuracy and at multiple energies to allow direct inversion for a low coverage (5%) disordered K/Ni(100) surface. The data inversion reveals three-dimensional coordinates of atoms with atom images whose full width at half maximum is less than 1 angstrom in all spatial directions. By varying the angle of incidence, first layer and second layer near-neighbor Ni atoms are separately imaged. This is the first demonstration of multiple-energy internal-source electron holography using measured elastically backscattered electrons.

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We have used ab initio methods to study the possible transition between icosahedral (ico) and cuboctahedral (fcc) structures in lead nanoclusters of sizes up to 309 atoms. Spontaneous fcc-to-ico transition in Pb-13 was observed in the ab initio molecular dynamics (MD) simulations at various temperatures. The transition path can be described predominantly by an angular variable s, which can, generally be applied to the similar transitions in clusters of larger sizes and was observed to follow the Mackay model. We have calculated the two-dimensional energy surface that describes the transition in Pb-13 and found a barrierless fcc-to-ico transition path, which is consistent with the observed spontaneous transition in the ab initio MD simulations. The atomic displacements in the transition were identified as one of the vibrational eigenmodes of these two Pb-13 clusters. For clusters of larger sizes (Pb-n, where n = 55, 147, and 309), the possible transitions following similar paths were determined not to be barrierless and the sizes of the barriers were determined by the ab initio elastic band method.

Following our previous work, we carry out a more detailed study of dissociation dynamics of diatomic ions field-evaporated from a metallic tip of field-ion microscopy, We have found that the partial fractal behavior of the dissociation probability near threshold field strength and the multiple peaks in the time-of-flight spectrum can be attributed to different combinations of vibrational and rotational cycles before ions dissociate, But more clear revelation of the origin of the fractal behavior comes from investigating the uniform-field limit, where we show that two types of chaos exist, one is associated with the rotational saddle orbit and the other associated with the moving potential barrier of a DC field-distorted anharmonic oscillator, The homoclinic tangles associated with these saddles give rise to the sensitive dependence of dynamics on initial conditions.

Direct inversion of measured Kikuchi and simulated photoelectron diffraction patterns shows clear images of the neighboring atoms within the range of the electron mean free path. More than ten nearby atoms are obtained for the Ag(100), Si(100) and (2X1) Na/Si(100) systems by the integral-energy phase-summing method. The key point in removing artifacts is a correct role of background subtraction. When this is achieved, the three-dimensional images are essentially high fidelity and artifact free. This demonstrates that electron-emission holography can be used as a direct local structural probe.

We have calculated the multiple-scattering x-ray photoemission spectroscopy angular profiles of hcp Co(0001). Layer-by-layer emission contributions are presented, and the focusing directions are identified. Angular transformation of the pattern is performed to obtain real-space images of the nearest-neighbor atoms above the emitters.

We report first-principles calculations of Pb (100) films up to 22 monolayers to study variations in the surface energy and work function as a function of film thickness. An even-odd oscillation is found in these two quantities, while a jelliumlike model for this s-p metal predicts a periodicity of about three monolayers. This unexpected result is explained by considering a coherent superposition of contributions from quantum-well states centered at both the Gamma and M points in the two-dimensional Brillouin zone, demonstrating the importance of crystal band structure in studying the quantum size effect in metal thin films.

We have carried out first-principles calculations of Pb (111) films up to 25 monolayers to study the oscillatory quantum size effects exhibited in the surface energy and work function. These oscillations are correlated with the thickness dependence of the energies of confined electrons, which can be properly modeled by an energy-dependent phase shift of the electronic wave function upon reflection at the interface. It is found that a quantitative description of these quantum size effects requires a full consideration of the crystal band structure.

The presence of sulfur atoms on the Pd(100) surface is known to hinder the dissociative adsorption of hydrogen. Using density-functional theory and the full-potential linear augmented plane-wave method, we investigate the potential energy surface (PES) of the dissociative adsorption of H-2 On the sulfur covered Pd(100) surface. The PES is changed significantly compared to the dissociation on the clean Pd(100) surface, particularly for hydrogen close to the S atoms. While the hydrogen dissociation at the clean Pd(100) surface is nonactivated, for the (2 x 2) sulfur adlayer (coverage Theta (S) = 0.25) the dissociation of H-2 is inhibited by energy barriers. Their heights strongly depend on the distance between the hydrogen and sulfur atoms leading to a highly corrugated PES. The largest barriers are in the vicinity of the sulfur atoms due to the strong repulsion between sulfur and hydrogen. Still the hydrogen dissociation on the (2x2) sulfur covered Pd(100) surface is exothermic. Thus the poisoning effect of sulfur adatoms for H-2 dissociation at low sulfur coverage (Theta(S) less than or equal to 0.25) is mainly governed by the formation of energy barriers, not by blocking of the adsorption sites. For the c(2 x 2) sulfur adlayer (Theta(S)= 0.5), the PES for hydrogen dissociation is purely repulsive. This is due to the fact that for all different possible adsorption geometries the hydrogen molecules come too close.to the sulfur adatoms before the dissociation is completed.

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Atomically uniform Pb films are successfully prepared on Si(111), despite a large lattice mismatch. Angle-resolved photoemission measurements of the electronic structure show layer-resolved quantum well states which can be correlated with dramatic variations in thermal stability. The odd film thicknesses N=5, 7, and 9 monolayers show sharp quantum well states. The even film thicknesses N=6 and 8 do not, but are much more stable than the odd film thicknesses. This correlation is discussed in terms of a total energy calculation and Friedel-like oscillations in properties.

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We present a method for spatially resolved imaging of energy-dependent photoelectron diffraction. Energy-dependent photoelectron-diffraction spectra are individually Fourier transformed to three-dimensional vector space. The complex transformed amplitudes are summed over a span of phi angles or over a span of polar angles. The images are, respectively, well resolved in the radial and azimuthal directions, or in the radial and polar directions. The intersections of these real-space maps fix the atomic coordinates. We show how the intensity loci from single and multiple scattering paths are separately resolved and how most multiple scattering contributions are eliminated. By varying the collection angles, atoms in different regions relative to the emitter, e.g., surface or bulk atoms, are imaged. One can also use the photon's A vector to enhance the near-pi backscattering geometry. We compare this method with another direct method: extended x-ray-absorption fine structure.

We invert high-energy (E greater-than-or-equal-to 400 eV) photoelectron and Auger-electron interference patterns to construct 3D images of surface and interface atoms. A new scheme is introduced to correct the phase shift of the image. Image reconstruction is demonstrated for Si(111) square-root 3 x square-root 3-B, a system in which multiple-scattering effects are small and all source waves are equivalent. Using diffraction results from multiple-scattering slab calculations, we achieve a spatial resolution of 1.0-1.3 angstrom, thus qualifying the technique as a direct structural tool.

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Whether photoemission probes surface or bulk properties has long been a topic of interest and debate. This work employs angle-resolved photoemission to map the electronic structure of Ag films of varying thicknesses prepared on Si(111). As expected, the discrete quantum-well states or subbands observed at small thicknesses merge into a continuum as the film thickness approaches the bulk limit. However, a number of discrete states remain isolated within gaps or pockets in the bulk continuum. While these Ag surface states have been predicted previously by calculations, most are experimentally identified herein only for the first time. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2009

We propose in this paper a theoretical model to investigate surface self-diffusion of single adatoms on the face-centered-cubic metals. Calculations are performed on the channeled (110), densely packed (111) and loosely packed (001) surfaces of iridium at temperature T = 800 K. Three realistic model potentials, Embedded Atom method, Sutton-Chen and Rosato-Guillope-Legrand potentials, are applied to describe the interatomic interaction of the adatom/substrate systems. These potentials all involve a few empirical fittings of bulk properties of solid which incorporate with many-body effects. With these potentials, conventional molecular dynamics (MD) is employed to obtain trajectories of the atoms. On the (111) plane, via the Einstein relation, the estimated random walk exponential prefactors and activation energies do exhibit Arrhenius behavior, which are in reasonably good agreement with the experimental results. On the (001) and (110) faces, a number of theoretical evidences for atomic diffusion by exchange mechanism of the adatom with a surface atom are presented, which are again in fairly good agreement with the experiments. In addition, an examination of the exchange diffusion characteristics on several systems (Cu, Rh and Pt) is also presented.

The adatoms, dimers and rest atoms in the three outermost atomic layers of the Si(111)-(7 x 7) surface are directly imaged with glancing Kikuchi electron holography. The applicability of Kikuchi electron holography to complicated multiple-emitter surfaces is evident. The three-dimensional relative positions of atoms on the Si(111)-(7 x 7) surface are in good accordance with the LEED-optimized DAS model.

Using scanning-tunneling microscopy and first-principles total-energy calculations, we have considered the structural properties of the so-called doped clusters formed by depositing additional 0.05 monolayer of In onto the 4x3-periodicity magic-cluster array in the In/Si(100) system. Low-temperature STM observations have revealed that most of the doped clusters have an asymmetric shape. According to the total-energy calculations, these clusters have plausibly Si6In8 composition. In such a cluster, one of the In atoms is mobile and can hop between four equivalent sites within a cluster. The hopping between sites, located in the different 2ax3a halves of the cluster, is characterized by the barrier of about 0.7 eV, and this hopping becomes frozen at 55 K. In contrast, the hopping between the neighboring sites within the same cluster half persists up to very low temperatures, as the barrier height here is an order of magnitude lower. Due to the above structural properties, the doped asymmetric Si6In8 cluster can be treated as a promising switch, logic gate, or memory cell of the atomic-scale size.

Basing on the results of the scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) observations and density functional theory (DFT) calculations, the structural model for the Cu magic clusters formed on Si(1 1 1)7 x 7 surface has been proposed. Using STM, composition of the Cu magic clusters has been evaluated from the quantitative analysis of the Cu and Si mass transport occurring during magic cluster converting into the Si(1 1 1)’5.5 x 5.5’-Cu reconstruction upon annealing. Evaluation yields that Cu magic cluster accommodates similar to 20 Cu atoms with similar to 20 Si atoms being expelled from the corresponding 7 x 7 half unit cell (HUC). In order to fit these values, it has been suggested that the Cu magic clusters resemble fragments of the Cu2Si-silicide monolayer incorporated into the rest-atom layer of the Si(1 1 1)7 x 7 HUCs. Using DFT calculations, stability of the nineteen models has been tested of which five models appeared to have formation energies lower than that of the original Si(1 1 1)7 x 7 surface. The three of five models having the lowest formation energies have been concluded to be the most plausible ones. They resemble well the evaluated composition and their counterparts are found in the experimental STM images. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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The work function of atomically uniform Ag films grown on Fe(100) is measured as a function of film thickness. It shows layer-resolved variations as a result of quantum confinement of the valence electrons. A first-principles calculation reproduces the observed variations except for very thin films (one and two monolayers), and the differences can be attributed, in part, to strain effects caused by the lattice mismatch between Ag and Fe. These results illustrate the close interaction between interface effects and surface properties.

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Motivated by the synthesis of the layered structure CoO2via Li atom deintercalation from LixCoO2, herein, we investigated the electronic structure, lattice dynamics, electron–phonon interaction, and superconductivity of monolayer CoO2 using first-principles calculations. This 2D material was predicted to have a ferromagnetic ground state with a metallic band structure and the total magnetization of 0.83μB. Remarkably, the non-spin polarized calculations show that the monolayer CoO2 possesses phonon-mediated superconductivity at 25–28 K owing to its intermediate to strong electron–phonon coupling (EPC). The rather strong EPC in this compound is mainly driven by the acoustic phonons, making this compound one of the highest-temperature superconductors among the existing 2D materials. Moreover, the CoO2 sheets could be synthesized via exfoliation from bulk CoO2 owing to the relatively small interlayer binding energy while maintaining its stability under normal experimental conditions. Compared to its bulk and bilayer counterparts, monolayer CoO2 was found to have highest EPC.

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