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At least 55 records · Page 3

Liquid Structure and Transport Properties of the Deep Eutectic Solvent Ethaline

A range of techniques including physical property measurements, neutron scattering experiments, ab initio molecular dynamics, and classical molecular dynamics simulations are used to probe the structural, thermodynamic, and transport properties of a deep eutectic solvent comprised of a 1:2 molar ratio of choline chloride and ethylene glycol. This mixture, known as Ethaline, has many desirable properties for use in a range of applications, and therefore, understanding its liquid structure and transport properties is of interest. Simulation results are able to capture experimental densities, diffusivities, viscosities, and structure factors extremely well. Here, the solvation environment is dynamic and dominated by different hydrogen bonding interactions. Dynamic heterogeneities resulting from hydrogen bonding interactions are quantified. Rotational dynamics of molecular dipole moments of choline and ethylene glycol are computed and found to exhibit a fast and slow mode.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Multifunctional Polar 2D Lead Iodide Perovskites Exhibiting Persistent Spin Texture

Ferroelectric Rashba semiconductors are a rare class of multifunctional materials promising for spin–orbitronics due to the possibility of electrically switchable spin textures. Hybrid organic–inorganic metal halide perovskites offer exceptional tunability that can be harnessed to target noncentrosymmetry; however, the complex interactions between organic and inorganic components are not rationally understood. Here, we use an asymmetric spacer cation with a strong molecular dipole moment (2-fluorobenzylammonium, 2FBZ) and increase the intrinsic quantum well thickness to n > 1 to synthesize three new polar 2D lead iodide perovskites (2FBZ) 2 (A) n-1 Pb n I 3n+1 with A = methylammonium (MA) or formamidinium (FA) and n = 2, 3. Single-crystal structure analysis reveals the C 2v symmetry of these crystal structures and substantial structural distortions, which enable Rashba and Dresselhaus band splitting and persistent spin texture, confirmed by DFT calculations. Measurements of the resulting symmetry-dependent properties, such as second harmonic generation, switchable photovoltaic effect, ferroelectric polarization, and low temperature photoluminescence show switchable ferroelectric semiconducting properties. Furthermore, these results introduce a general chemical design strategy toward polar symmetry by exploiting the complex interplay between asymmetric spacer cations and A-site cations in quasi-2D (n > 1) halide perovskites to realize new classes of multifunctional materials for future spin–orbitronic applications.

Cations↗

Observation of a uniaxial ferroelectric smectic A phase

We report the observation of the smectic A F , a liquid crystal phase of the ferroelectric nematic realm. The smectic A F is a phase of small polar, rod-shaped molecules that form two-dimensional fluid layers spaced by approximately the mean molecular length. The phase is uniaxial, with the molecular director, the local average long-axis orientation, normal to the layer planes, and ferroelectric, with a spontaneous electric polarization parallel to the director. Polarization measurements indicate almost complete polar ordering of the ∼10 Debye longitudinal molecular dipoles, and hysteretic polarization reversal with a coercive field ∼2 × 10 5 V/m is observed. The SmAF phase appears upon cooling in two binary mixtures of partially fluorinated mesogens: 2N/DIO, exhibiting a nematic (N)–smectic Z A (SmZ A )–ferroelectric nematic (N F )–SmA F phase sequence, and 7N/DIO, exhibiting an N–SmZ A –SmA F phase sequence. The latter presents an opportunity to study a transition between two smectic phases having orthogonal systems of layers.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

The smectic Z A phase: Antiferroelectric smectic order as a prelude to the ferroelectric nematic

We have structurally characterized the liquid crystal (LC) phase that can appear as an intermediate state when a dielectric nematic, having polar disorder of its molecular dipoles, transitions to the almost perfectly polar-ordered ferroelectric nematic. This intermediate phase, which fills a 100-y-old void in the taxonomy of smectic LCs and which we term the “smectic Z A ,” is antiferroelectric, with the nematic director and polarization oriented parallel to smectic layer planes, and the polarization alternating in sign from layer to layer with a 180 Å period. A Landau free energy, originally derived from the Ising model of ferromagnetic ordering of spins in the presence of dipole–dipole interactions, and applied to model incommensurate antiferroelectricity in crystals, describes the key features of the nematic–SmZ A –ferroelectric nematic phase sequence.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Dipole properties of molecular hydrogen.

Molecular hydrogen electron scattering, optical refractivity and molecular anisotropy used to construct model dipole spectrum consistent with oscillator strength rules

Dalgarno, A.↗

An Investigation of the Interrelationships Between Linear and NonLinear Polarizabilities and Bond Length Alternation on Connugated Organic Molecules

A computational method was devised to explore the relationship between charge separation, geometry, molecular dipole moment, polarizability, and hyperpolarizabilities in comjugated organic molecules. It is shown that bond length alternation (the average difference in length between single and double bonds in the molecule) is a key structurally observable parameter that can be correlated with hyperpolarizabilities and is thus relevant to the optimizaton of molecules and materials.

nonlinear optics computation electric field cyanin↗

Retrieval of full angular- and energy-dependent complex transition dipoles in the molecular frame from laser-induced high-order harmonic signals with aligned molecules

High-order harmonic signals generated in molecules are the consequence of coherent summation of complex laser-induced transition dipoles $\textit{d}(θ, ω)$ with each fixed-in-space molecule; here $\theta$ is the angle of the molecular axis with respect to the laser polarization axis and $\omega$ is the harmonic energy. In the so-called rotational coherent spectroscopy, it is proposed to extract the fixed-in-space $\textit{d}(θ, ω)$ in the molecular frame by measuring harmonics generated by a probing laser from the rotational molecular wave packets that have been prepared by a prior pump laser. By varying the time delay between the two lasers, methods have been utilized to extract the $\theta$ dependence of both the amplitude and phase of each individual harmonic, but the relative phase between harmonics cannot be retrieved. Here we report that this limitation can be removed. It requires the additional measurement of harmonic spectra versus the pump-probe angles at one fixed time delay. The two-dimensional input harmonic data (time-delay and pump-probe angle) are then used to retrieve the full complex transition dipole $\textit{d}(θ, ω)$ using a retrieval method based on machine learning algorithms. Finally, we demonstrate this method on N 2 and CO 2 molecules.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

Operando Investigation of the Molecular Origins of Dipole Switching in P(VDF‐TrFE‐CFE) Terpolymer for Large Adiabatic Temperature Change

Abstract Relaxor ferroelectric polymers exhibiting a giant electrocaloric effect (ECE) can potentially be used to create next‐generation solid‐state coolers. Under an electric field, poly(vinylidene fluoride‐trifluoroethylene‐chlorofluoroethylene) terpolymer goes through a large dipolar entropy change producing a high adiabatic temperature change (Δ T ECE ). This work resolves the molecular origins of the large entropy change behind the electric field‐induced dipole switching. A Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy equipped with a high voltage source is used to operandoly observe the characteristic molecular vibrational modes. A short‐range trans (T) conformation of the CF 2 ‐CH 2 dyads interrupted by a gauche (G) conformation, e.g., TTTG in the terpolymer chain, undergoes a dynamic transformation that leads to a corresponding Δ T ECE whenever an electric field is applied. The molecular dynamics simulation also proves that the energy barrier that the transformation from TTTGs into a long T sequence overcomes is smaller than that for all other conformations. A mixed solvent system is used to obtain T3G‐enriched terpolymer films exhibiting a 4.02 K Δ T ECE at 60 MV m −1 and these films are employed to manufacture a 2‐layer‐cascaded cooling device that achieves a 6.7 K temperature lift, the highest reported value for a 2‐layer cascaded device made of fluoropolymers.

Zhu, Yuan↗

Observation of a π-Type Dipole-Bound State in Molecular Anions

We report the observation of a π-type dipole-bound state (π-DBS) in cryogenically cooled deprotonated 9-anthrol molecular anions (9AT – ) by resonant two-photon photoelectron imaging. A DBS is observed 191 cm –1 (0.0237 eV) below the detachment threshold, and the existence of the π-DBS is revealed by a distinct (s + d)-wave photoelectron angular distribution. The π-DBS is stabilized by the large anisotropic in-plane polarizability of 9AT. Here, the population of the dipole-forbidden π-DBS is proposed to be via a nonadiabatic coupling with the dipole-allowed σ-type DBS mediated by molecular rotations.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

Extended molecular eigenmodes treatment of dipole–dipole NMR relaxation in real fluids

Traditional models of NMR relaxation fail to account for the complex, multi-exponential behavior of the autocorrelation function in realistic systems characterized by soft-interactions and molecules that are chemically and physically complex. Here, in this study, we describe the relative diffusion of the spin dipoles by means of a Fokker–Planck equation that includes an interaction potential of mean force to account for the response of the physical/chemical environment around the dipoles. By numerically solving the Fokker–Planck equation for the diffusion propagator, we estimate dipole–dipole NMR relaxation for like- and unlike-spin systems via its eigenmode solution. We test the model against molecular simulations of diffusing dipoles with harmonic potentials and also validate using experimental longitudinal relaxation data from real systems, including Gd(III)–aqua and Gd(III)–DO3A–butrol complexes, the latter being an important MRI contrast agent. Using this novel approach, we predict both the inner- and outer-shell contributions to the relaxivity rates with excellent accuracy at frequencies relevant to MRI. We also show that, under the appropriate assumptions, our framework naturally recovers the Bloembergen–Purcell–Pound, the Solomon–Bloembergen–Morgan, and the Hwang–Freed models. Our implementation is general and publicly available for application to a broad range of systems.

Pinheiro dos Santos, Thiago J. [Rice Univ., Housto↗

Pressure-induced structural and dielectric changes in liquid water at room temperature

Understanding the pressure-dependent dielectric properties of water is crucial for a wide range of scientific and practical applications. In this study, we employ a deep neural network trained on density functional theory data to investigate the dielectric properties of liquid water at room temperature across a pressure range of 0.1–1000 MPa. We observe a nonlinear increase in the static dielectric constant ɛ 0 with increasing pressure, a trend that is qualitatively consistent with experimental observations. This increase in ɛ 0 is primarily attributed to the increase in water density under compression, which enhances collective dipole fluctuations within the hydrogen-bonding network as well as the dielectric response. Despite the increase in ɛ 0 , our results reveal a decrease in the Kirkwood correlation factor G K with increasing pressure. Furthermore, this decrease in G K is attributed to pressure-induced structural distortions in the hydrogen-bonding network, which weaken dipolar correlations by disrupting the ideal tetrahedral arrangement of water molecules.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Interfacial Electromechanics Predicts Phase Behavior of 2D Hybrid Halide Perovskites

Quasi-two-dimensional (2D) mixed-cation hybrid halide perovskites (A' 2 A N–1 M N X 3N+1 ; A' = large organic molecule with cationic group, A = [Cs + , CH 3 NH 3 + , HC(NH 2 ) 2 + ], M = [Pb, Sn, Ge], X = [I – , Br – , Cl – ]) have rapidly emerged as candidates to improve the structural stability and device lifetime of 3D perovskite semiconductor devices under operating conditions. The addition of the large A' cation to the traditional AMX 3 structure introduces several synthetic degrees of freedom and breaks M–X bonds, giving rise to peculiar critical phase behavior in the phase space of these complex materials. In this work, we propose a thermodynamic model parametrized by first-principles calculations to generate the phase diagram of 2D and quasi-2D perovskites (q-2DPKs) based on the mechanics and electrostatics of the interface between the A' cations and the metal halide octahedral network. Focusing on the most commonly studied methylammonium lead iodide system where A' is n-butylammonium (BA; CH 3 (CH 2 ) 3 NH 3 + ), we find that the apparent difficulty in synthesizing phase-pure samples with a stoichiometric index N > 5 can be attributed to the energetic competition between repulsion of opposing interfacial dipole layers and mechanical relaxation induced by interfacial stress. Our model shows quantitative agreement with experimental observations of the maximum phase-pure stoichiometric index (N crit ) and explains the nonmonotonic evolution of the lattice parameters with increasing stoichiometric index (N). This model is generalizable to the entire family of q-2DPKs and can guide the design of photovoltaic and optical materials that combine the structural stability of the q-2DPKs while retaining the charge carrier properties of their 3D counterparts.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Adiabatically controlled motional states of a CaO + and Ca + trapped-ion chain cooled to the ground state

Control of the external degree of freedom of trapped molecular ions is essential for their promising applications to spectroscopy, precision measurements of fundamental constants, and quantum information technology. Here, in this study, we demonstrate near ground-state cooling of the axial motional modes of a calcium mono-oxide ion via sympathetic sideband cooling with a cotrapped calcium ion. We also show that the phonon state of the axial out-of-phase mode of the ion chain is maintained while the mode frequency is adiabatically ramped up and/or down. The adiabatic ramping of the motional mode frequency is a prerequisite for searching for the proposed molecular dipole-phonon interaction.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗