The 13-atom metal clusters of fcc elements (Al, Rh, Ir, Ni, Pd, Pt, Cu, Ag, Au) were studied by density functional theory calculations. The global minima were searched for by the ab initio random structure searching method. In addition to some new lowest-energy structures for Pd13 and Au13, we found that the effective coordination numbers of the lowest-energy clusters would increase with the ratio of the dimer-to-bulk bond length. This correlation, together with the electronic structures of the lowest-energy clusters, divides the 13-atom clusters of these fcc elements into two groups (except for Au13, which prefers a two-dimensional structure due to the relativistic effect). Compact-like clusters that are composed exclusively of triangular motifs are preferred for elements without d-electrons (Al) or with (nearly) filled d-band electrons (Ni, Pd, Cu, Ag). Non-compact clusters composed mainly of square motifs connected by some triangular motifs (Rh, Ir, Pt) are favored for elements with unfilled d-band electrons.

Emergence of biochemical homochirality is an intriguing topic, and none of the proposed scenarios has encountered a unanimous consensus. Candidates for naturally occurring processes, which may originate chiral selection, involve interaction of matter with light and molecular collisions. We performed and report here: (1) simulations of photodissociation of an oriented chiral molecule by linearly polarized (achiral) light observing that the angular distribution of the photofragments is characteristic of each enantiomer and both differ from the racemic mixture; and (2) molecular dynamics simulations (elastic collisions of oriented hydrogen peroxide, one of the most simple chiral molecules, with Ne atom) demonstrating that the scattering and the recoil angles are specific of the enantiomeric form. The efficacy of non-chiral light (in the case of photodissociation) and of non-chiral projectile (in the case of collisions) is due to the molecular orientation, as an essential requirement to observe chiral effects. The results of the simulations, that we report in this article, provide the background for the perspective realization of experiments which go beyond the well-documented ones involving interaction of circularly polarized laser (chiral light) with the matter, specifically by making use of non-chiral, i.e. linearly polarized or unpolarized light sources, and also by obtaining chiral effects with no use at all of light, but simply inducing them by molecular collisions. The case of vortices is discussed in a companion paper. © 2013 Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.

The aligned metastable CO(a 3π1) molecular beam was generated by an electronic excitation through the Cameron band (CO a 3Π1 ← X 1Σ+) transition. Beam characterization of the aligned molecular beam of CO(a 3Π1) was carried out by (1 + 1) REMPI detection via the b 3Σ+ state. The REMPI signals showed the clear dependence on the polarization of the pump laser, and the experimental result was well reproduced by the theoretical simulation. This agreement confirms that aligned metastable CO(a 3Π1) can be generated and controlled by rotating polarization of the pump laser. By using this technique, a single quantum state of CO(a 3Π1) can be selected as a metastable molecular beam. The steric effect in the energy-transfer collision of CO(a 3Π1) with NO forming the excited NO was carried out with this aligned CO(a 3Π1) molecular beam. We find that the sideways orientation of CO(a 3Π1) is more favorable in the formation of the excited NO(A 2Σ+, B 2Π) than that for the axial collisions. The obtained steric effect was discussed with the aid of the spatial distribution of CO(a 3Π1) molecular orbitals, and we find that specific rotational motion of CO(a 3Π1) in each state may not be a dominant factor in this energy-transfer collision. © 2013 American Chemical Society.

Competitive bond dissociation mechanisms for bromoacetyl chloride and 2- and 3-bromopropionyl chloride following the 1[n(O) →π*(Cï£O)] transition at 234-235 nm are investigated. Branching ratios for C-Br/C-Cl bond fission are found by using the (2+1) resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI) technique coupled with velocity ion imaging. The fragment branching ratios depend mainly on the dissociation pathways and the distances between the orbitals of Br and the Cï£O chromophore. C-Cl bond fission is anticipated to follow an adiabatic potential surface for a strong diabatic coupling between the n(O)π*(Cï£O) and np(Cl)σ*(C-Cl) bands. In contrast, C-Br bond fission is subject to much weaker coupling between n(O)π*(Cï£O) and np(Br)σ*(C-Br). Thus, a diabatic pathway is preferred for bromoacetyl chloride and 2-bromopropionyl chloride, which leads to excited-state products. For 3-bromopropionyl chloride, the available energy is not high enough to reach the excited-state products such that C-Br bond fission must proceed through an adiabatic pathway with severe suppression by nonadiabatic coupling. The fragment translational energies and anisotropy parameters for the three molecules are also analyzed and appropriately interpreted. Busted open: Insight into the mechanisms causing C-Cl and C-Br bond fission of bromoacetyl chloride and 2- and 3-bromopropionyl chloride by following the 1[n(O) →π*(Cï£O)] transition is obtained. The figure shows the center-of-mass translational energy distributions of ground-state Br formation through a diabatic pathway for the dissociation of 2-bromopropionyl chloride. Copyright © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Quantum decoherence can be viewed as the mechanism responsible for the quantum-to-classical transition as the initially prepared quantum state interacts with its environment in an irreversible manner. One of the most common mechanisms responsible for the macroscopically observed decoherence involves collisions of an atom or molecule, initially prepared in a coherent superposition of states, with gas particles. In this work, a coherent superposition of quantum internal states of NO molecules is prepared by the interaction between the molecule with both a static and a radiofrequency electric field. Subsequently, NO + Ar collision decoherence experiments are investigated by measuring the loss of coherence as a function of the number of collisions. Data analysis using a model based on the interaction potential of the collisional partners allowed to unravel the molecular mechanism responsible for the loss of coherence in the prepared NO quantum superposition of internal states. The relevance of the present work relies on several aspects. On the one hand, the use of radio-waves introduces a new way for the production of coherent beams. On the other hand, the employed methodology could be useful in investigating the Stereodynamics of chemical reactions with coherent reagents. © 2013 American Chemical Society.

The first wetting layer on the GaN (0001) surface has been investigated at the level of density functional theory. Many water adsorption models have been analyzed and it is observed that the number of water molecules that can be dissociated is limited to 0.375 ML of adsorption sites; further water dissociation will cost energy penalty. The coverage of hydroxyl groups on surface could be up to 0.75 ML instead. It is also observed that the additional charge on the surface will totally transfer to water adsorbates when the water dissociation number is 0.375 ML. Meanwhile, the surface states will disappear when all the adsorption sites are occupied by dissociated or intact water. All of these phenomena can be attributed to the electron counting rule of III–V semiconductor growth theory. We suggest that the electron counting rule could be generally applied to the water adsorption on polar III–V and II–VI semiconductor surfaces.

Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) observations of the close-packed C60 fullerene arrays on Si(111)
R3xR3-Ag surface have revealed the presence of dim C60 molecules which constitute 9–12% of all fullerenes. The dim C60 fullerenes reside  1.6 A lower than the bright (“normal”) C60.While the brightC60 are in continuous rotation, the dim C60 are fixed in one of the single orientations, indicating a more tight bonding to the surface. At room temperature (RT), the dynamic switching from bright to dim C60 and vice versa has been detected. Switching slows down with decreasing temperature and becomes completely frozen at 110 K, which implies that the switching is a thermally driven process. RT deposition of  0.1 monolayer of Ag onto C60 array eliminates completely the dim C60 molecules. Experimental results can be understood if one assumes that formation of the dim C60 is associated with disintegration of Ag trimer on Si(111)R3xR3- Ag surface under a given C60 fullerene.

We utilize single molecule spectroscopy combined with time-correlated single-photon counting to probe electron transfer (ET) kinetics from CdSe/ZnS (core/shell) quantum dots (QDs) to TiO2 through various lengths of linker molecules. The QD-linker-TiO2 complexes with varied linker length, linker structure, and QD size are fabricated by a surface-based stepwise method to show control of the rate and of the magnitude of fluctuations of photo-induced ET at the single molecule level. The ET rate constants are determined to be 2.8×107, 1.9×107, and 3.5×106s-1 for the chain length of 1.5, 6.2 and 13.8Å, respectively. The electronic coupling strengths between QDs and TiO2 are further calculated to be 3.68, 3.60, and 1.59cm-1 for the three different chain lengths by using the Marcus ET model. © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Because various non-parallel G-quadruplexes of human telomeric sequences in K+ solution can be converted to a parallel G-quadruplex by adding polyethylene glycol (PEG) as a co-solvent, we have taken advantage of this property of PEG to study the covalent attachment of a PEG unit to a G-quadruplex ligand, 3,6-bis(1-methyl-4-vinylpyridinium) carbazole diiodide (BMVC). The hybrid ligand with the PEG unit, BMVC-8C3O or BMVC-6C2O by substituting either the tetraethylene glycol or the triethylene glycol terminated with a methyl-piperidinium cation in N-9 position of BMVC, not only induces structural change from different non-parallel G-quadruplexes to a parallel G-quadruplex but also increases the melting temperature of human telomeres in K+ solution by more than 45 degrees C. In addition, our ligand work provides further confidence that the local water structure plays the key to induce conformational change of human telomere.

Dissociative chemisorption of H-2 on the Al surface is a crucial step in the regeneration of promising hydrogen-storage materials such as alane and alanates. We show from first-principles calculations that transition metals such as V and Nb can act as effective catalysts for H-2 interaction with Al(100). When located at subsurface sites, V and Nb can reduce the activation barrier for H-2 dissociation by significantly larger values than the well-studied catalyst Ti. In addition, the binding energy of a H atom on the surface can be enhanced by as much as 0.4 eV when V or Nb is introduced in the sublayers of Al(100). The diffusion barrier for the adsorbed hydrogen is reduced by similar to 0.1 eV, showing an increased hydrogen mobility. The mechanism of promoting the metal surface reactivity by subsurface alloying with transition metals proposed in this work may serve as a new possible scheme for catalytic reactions on the metal surface.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Telomerase is the enzyme responsible for extending G-strand telomeric DNA and represents a promising target for treatment of neoplasia. Inhibition of telomerase can be achieved by stabilization of G-quadruplex DNA structures. Here, we characterize the cellular effects of a novel G-quadruplex stabilizing compound, 3,6-bis(4-methyl-2-vinylpyrazinium iodine) carbazole (BMVC4). EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH: The cellular effects of BMVC4 were characterized in both telomerase-positive and alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) cancer cells. The molecular mechanism of how BMVC4 induced senescence is also addressed. KEY RESULTS: BMVC4-treated cancer cells showed typical senescence phenotypes. BMVC4 induced senescence in both ALT and telomerase-overexpressing cells, suggesting that telomere shortening through telomerase inhibition might not be the cause for senescence. A large fraction of DNA damage foci was not localized to telomeres in BMVC4-treated cells and BMVC4 suppressed c-myc expression through stabilizing the G-quadruplex structure located at its promoter. These results indicated that the cellular targets of BMVC4 were not limited to telomeres. Further analyses showed that BMVC4 induced DNA breaks and activation of ataxia telangiectasia-mutated mediated DNA damage response pathway. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: BMVC4, a G-quadruplex stabilizer, induced senescence by activation of pathways of response to DNA damage that was independent of its telomerase inhibitory activity. Thus, BMVC4 has the potential to be developed as a chemotherapeutic agent against both telomerase positive and ALT cancer cells.

We have performed calculations of adsorption energetics on the graphene surface using the state-of-the-art diffusion quantum Monte Carlo method. Two types of configurations are considered in this work: the adsorption of a single O, F, or H atom on the graphene surface and the H-saturated graphene system (graphane). The adsorption energies are compared with those obtained from density functional theory with various exchange-correlation functionals. The results indicate that the approximate exchange-correlation functionals significantly overestimate the binding of O and F atoms on graphene, although the preferred adsorption sites are consistent. The energy errors are much less for atomic hydrogen adsorbed on the surface. We also find that a single O or H atom on graphene has a higher energy than in the molecular state, while the adsorption of a single F atom is preferred over the gas phase. In addition, the energetics of graphane is reported. The calculated equilibrium lattice constant turns out to be larger than that of graphene, at variance with a recent experimental suggestion.

The growth of epitaxial graphene on SiC surfaces is accompanied by the evaporation of Si atoms during the growth process. The continuous loss of Si atoms takes place even after the surface graphene layers are formed. Understanding the atomic transport process involved is critical in establishing a growth mechanism to model and control the process. Using density functional theory, we have calculated the potential energy variation and studied the diffusion of Si and C atoms on a single layer of graphene and between graphene sheets. Our results show that Si atoms can move almost freely on graphene and between graphene layers, while C atoms have much larger diffusion barriers. This work provides a detailed description of the energetics of relevant processes in the growth of epitaxial graphene on SiC surfaces.

We demonstrate that the long-lived bound states (supermolecules) can exist in the dilute limit when we tune the shape of the effective potential between polar molecules by an external microwave field. Binding energies, average sizes, and phase diagrams for both s-orbital (bosons) and p-orbital (fermions) dimers are studied, together with bosonic trimer states. We explicitly show that the nonadiabatic transition rate can be easily tuned small for such ground-state supermolecules, so that the system can be stable from collapse even near the associated potential resonance. Our results, therefore, suggest a feasible cold molecule system to investigate novel few-body and many-body physics (for example, the p-wave BCS-Bose-Einstein-condensate crossover for fermions and the paired condensate for bosons) that cannot be easily accessed in single species atomic gases.

A p-T phase diagram of graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) terminated by hydrogen atoms is established based on first-principles calculations, where the stable phase at standard conditions (25 degrees C and 1 bar) is found to be a zigzag GNR (zzGNR). The stability of this new GNR is understood based on an electron-counting model, which predicts semiconducting nonmagnetic zzGNRs. Quantum confinement of Dirac fermions in the stable zzGNRs is found to be qualitatively different from that in ordinary semiconductors. Bifurcation of the band gap is predicted to take place, leading to the formation of polymorphs with distinct band gaps but equal thermodynamic stability. A tight-binding model analysis reveals the role of edge symmetry on the band-gap bifurcation.

Graphene is believed to be an excellent candidate material for next-generation electronic devices. However, one needs to take into account the nontrivial effect of metal contacts in order to precisely control the charge injection and extraction processes. We have performed transport calculations for graphene junctions with wetting metal leads (metal leads that bind covalently to graphene) using nonequilibrium Green's functions and density functional theory. Quantitative information is provided on the increased resistance with respect to ideal contacts and on the statistics of current fluctuations. We find that charge transport through the studied two-terminal graphene junction with Ti contacts is pseudo-diffusive up to surprisingly high energies.

The Hofstadter butterfly spectrum for Landau levels in a two-dimensional periodic lattice is a rare example exhibiting fractal properties in a truly quantum system. However, the observation of this physical phenomenon in a conventional material will require a magnetic field strength several orders of magnitude larger than what can be produced in a modern laboratory. It turns out that for a specific range of rotational angles twisted bilayer graphene serves as a special system with a fractal energy spectrum under laboratory accessible magnetic field strengths. This unique feature arises from an intriguing electronic structure induced by the interlayer coupling. Using a recursive tight-binding method, we systematically map out the spectra of these Landau levels as a function of the rotational angle. Our results give a complete description of LLs in twisted bilayer graphene for both commensurate and incommensurate rotational angles and provide quantitative predictions of magnetic field strengths for observing the fractal spectra in these graphene systems.

Electron-phonon coupling (EPC) in Bernal stacked bilayer graphene (BLG) at different doping levels is studied by first-principles calculations. The phonons considered are long-wavelength high-energy symmetric and antisymmetric optical modes. Both are shown to have distinct EPC-induced phonon linewidths and frequency shifts as a function of the Fermi level E-F. We find that the antisymmetric mode has a strong coupling with the lowest two conduction bands when the Fermi level E-F is nearly 0.5 eV above the neutrality point, giving rise to a giant linewidth (more than 100 cm(-1)) and a significant frequency softening (similar to 60 cm(-1)). Our ab initio calculations show that the origin of the dramatic change arises from the unusual band structure in BLG. The results highlight the band structure effects on the EPC in BLG in the high-carrier-density regime.