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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 685 records · Page 38
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2015

Electronic, mechanical and dielectric properties of silicane under tensile strain

The electronic, mechanical and dielectric properties of fully hydrogenated silicene i.e. silicane in stable configuration are studied by means of density functional theory based calculations. The band gap of silicane monolayer can be flexibly reduced to zero when subjected to bi-axial tensile strain, leading to semi-conducting to metallic transition, whereas the static dielectric constant for in-plane polarization increases monotonically with increasing strain. Also the EEL function show the red shift in resonance peak with tensile strain. Our results offer useful insight for the application of silicane monolayer in nano-optical and electronics devices.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Band gap engineering via doping: A predictive approach

We employ an extension of Harrison's theory at the tight binding level of approximation to develop a predictive approach for band gap engineering involving isovalent doping of wide band gap semiconductors. Our results indicate that reasonably accurate predictions can be achieved at qualitative as well as quantitative levels. The predictive results were checked against ab initio ones obtained at the level of DFT/SGGA + U approximation. The minor disagreements between predicted and ab initio results can be attributed to the electronic processes not incorporated in Harrison's theory. These include processes such as the conduction band anticrossing [Shan et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 1221 (1999); Walukiewicz et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 1552 (2000)] and valence band anticrossing [Alberi et al., Phys. Rev. B 77, 073202 (2008); Appl. Phys. Lett. 92, 162105 (2008); Appl. Phys. Lett. 91, 051909 (2007); Phys. Rev. B 75, 045203 (2007)], as well as the multiorbital rehybridization. Another cause of disagreement between the results of our predictive approach and the ab initio ones is shown to be the result of the shift of Fermi energy within the impurity band formed at the edge of the valence band maximum due to rehybridization. The validity of our approach is demonstrated with example applications for the systems GaN{sub 1−x}Sb{sub x}, GaP{sub 1−x}Sb{sub x}, AlSb{sub 1−x}P{sub x}, AlP{sub 1−x}Sb{sub x}, and InP{sub 1−x}Sb{sub x}.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Strain-induced gap transition and anisotropic Dirac-like cones in monolayer and bilayer phosphorene

The electronic properties of two-dimensional monolayer and bilayer phosphorene subjected to uniaxial and biaxial strains have been investigated using first-principles calculations based on density functional theory. Strain engineering has obvious influence on the electronic properties of monolayer and bilayer phosphorene. By comparison, we find that biaxial strain is more effective in tuning the band gap than uniaxial strain. Interestingly, we observe the emergence of Dirac-like cones by the application of zigzag tensile strain in the monolayer and bilayer systems. For bilayer phosphorene, we induce the anisotropic Dirac-like dispersion by the application of appropriate armchair or biaxial compressive strain. Our results present very interesting possibilities for engineering the electronic properties of phosphorene and pave a way for tuning the band gap of future electronic and optoelectronic devices.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Electronic configurations and magnetic anisotropy in organometallic metallocenes

Electronic configurations and magnetic anisotropy of organometallic metallocenes (MCp{sub 2}s) were investigated by means of first principles calculations based on the constraint density functional theory. The results predict that the ground states for M = Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni are the {sup 3}E{sub 2g}, {sup 2}E{sub 2g}, {sup 1}A{sub 1g}, {sup 2}E{sub 1g}, and {sup 3}A{sub 2g} states, respectively. The magnetizations of the CoCp{sub 2} and NiCp{sub 2} energetically favor highly orienting along the perpendicular and parallel directions to the cyclopentadienyl (Cp) plane, respectively, and the others show almost no preference for the magnetic easy axis.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Underlying theory of a model for the Renner–Teller effect in tetra-atomic molecules: X{sup 2}Π{sub u} electronic state of C{sub 2}H{sub 2}{sup +}

In the present study, we prove the plausibility of a simple model for the Renner–Teller effect in tetra-atomic molecules with linear equilibrium geometry by ab initio calculations of the electronic energy surfaces and non-adiabatic matrix elements for the X{sup 2}Π{sub u} state of C{sub 2}H{sub 2}{sup +}. This phenomenon is considered as a combination of the usual Renner–Teller effect, appearing in triatomic species, and a kind of the Jahn–Teller effect, similar to the original one arising in highly symmetric molecules. Only four parameters (plus the spin–orbit constant, if the spin effects are taken into account), which can be extracted from ab initio calculations carried out at five appropriate (planar) molecular geometries, are sufficient for building up the Hamiltonian matrix whose diagonalization results in the complete low-energy (bending) vibronic spectrum. The main result of the present study is the proof that the diabatization scheme, hidden beneath the apparent simplicity of the model, can safely be carried out, at small-amplitude bending vibrations, without cumbersome computation of non-adiabatic matrix elements at large number of molecular geometries.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2015

Electronic properties of substitutional impurities in InGaN monolayer quantum wells

InGaN alloys and, in particular, InGaN monolayer quantum wells (MLQWs) are attracting an increasing amount of interest for opto-electronic applications. Impurities, incorporated during growth, can introduce electronic states that can degrade the performance of such devices. For this reason, we present a density functional and group theoretical study of the electronic properties of C, H, or O impurities in an InGaN MLQW. Analysis of the formation energy and symmetry reveals that these impurities are mostly donors and can be held accountable for the reported degradation of InGaN-based devices.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Ab initio quasi-particle approximation bandgaps of silicon nanowires calculated at density functional theory/local density approximation computational effort

Ab initio calculations of hydrogen-passivated Si nanowires were performed using density functional theory within LDA-1/2, to account for the excited states properties. A range of diameters was calculated to draw conclusions about the ability of the method to correctly describe the main trends of bandgap, quantum confinement, and self-energy corrections versus the diameter of the nanowire. Bandgaps are predicted with excellent accuracy if compared with other theoretical results like GW, and with the experiment as well, but with a low computational cost.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

A new form of Ca{sub 3}P{sub 2} with a ring of Dirac nodes

We report the synthesis and crystal structure of a new high-temperature form of Ca{sub 3}P{sub 2}. The crystal structure was determined through Rietveld refinements of synchrotron powder x-ray diffraction data. This form of Ca{sub 3}P{sub 2} has a crystal structure of the hexagonal Mn{sub 5}Si{sub 3} type, with a Ca ion deficiency compared to the ideal 5:3 stoichiometry. This yields a stable, charge-balanced compound of Ca{sup 2+} and P{sup 3−}. We also report the observation of a secondary hydride phase, Ca{sub 5}P{sub 3}H, which again is a charge-balanced compound. The calculated band structure of Ca{sub 3}P{sub 2} indicates that it is a three-dimensional Dirac semimetal with a highly unusual ring of Dirac nodes at the Fermi level. The Dirac states are protected against gap opening by a mirror plane in a manner analogous to what is seen for graphene.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Pressure dependence of electronic properties of BaI{sub 2}

We present Density Functional Theoretical (DFT) calculations of the electronic properties of scintillator material BaI{sub 2} under pressure which were carried out using Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof genralized gradient approximation. We found that BaI{sub 2} is a direct band gap material with band gap calculated as 3.35 eV. The pressure effect on BaI{sub 2} indicates a linear monotonously decreasing band gap and increasing valence band width with pressure. We have observed the shifting of band extrema from the Γ point with pressure. The pressure coefficient of band gap is found to be −0.047 eV/GPa. The interatomic ionicity factor of BaI{sub 2} is found to be 0.51. Trends in bonding and ionicity under pressure are also discussed.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Photodissociation spectroscopy of the dysprosium monochloride molecular ion

We have performed a combined experimental and theoretical study of the photodissociation cross section of the molecular ion DyCl{sup +}. The photodissociation cross section for the photon energy range 35 500 cm{sup −1} to 47 500 cm{sup −1} is measured using an integrated ion trap and time-of-flight mass spectrometer; we observe a broad, asymmetric profile that is peaked near 43 000 cm{sup −1}. The theoretical cross section is determined from electronic potentials and transition dipole moments calculated using the relativistic configuration-interaction valence-bond and coupled-cluster methods. The electronic structure of DyCl{sup +} is extremely complex due to the presence of multiple open electronic shells, including the 4f{sup 10} configuration. The molecule has nine attractive potentials with ionically bonded electrons and 99 repulsive potentials dissociating to a ground state Dy{sup +} ion and Cl atom. We explain the lack of symmetry in the cross section as due to multiple contributions from one-electron-dominated transitions between the vibrational ground state and several resolved repulsive excited states.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2016

Dual role of monolayer MoS{sub 2} in enhanced photocatalytic performance of hybrid MoS{sub 2}/SnO{sub 2} nanocomposite

The enhanced photocatalytic performance of various MoS{sub 2}-based nanomaterials has recently been observed, but the role of monolayer MoS{sub 2} is still not well elucidated at the electronic level. Herein, focusing on a model system, hybrid MoS{sub 2}/SnO{sub 2} nanocomposite, we first present a theoretical elucidation of the dual role of monolayer MoS{sub 2} as a sensitizer and a co-catalyst by performing density functional theory calculations. It is demonstrated that a type-II, staggered, band alignment of ∼0.49 eV exists between monolayer MoS{sub 2} and SnO{sub 2} with the latter possessing the higher electron affinity, or work function, leading to the robust separation of photoexcited charge carriers between the two constituents. Under irradiation, the electrons are excited from Mo 4d orbitals to SnO{sub 2}, thus enhancing the reduction activity of latter, indicating that the monolayer MoS{sub 2} is an effective sensitizer. Moreover, the Mo atoms, which are catalytically inert in isolated monolayer MoS{sub 2}, turn into catalytic active sites, making the monolayer MoS{sub 2} to be a highly active co-catalyst in the composite. The dual role of monolayer MoS{sub 2} is expected to arise in other MoS{sub 2}-semiconductor nanocomposites. The calculated absorption spectra can be rationalized by available experimental results. These findings provide theoretical evidence supporting the experimental reports and pave the way for developing highly efficient MoS{sub 2}-based photocatalysts.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2019

A master equation simulation for the • OH + CH 3 OH reaction

A combined (fixed-J) two-dimensional master-equation / semi-classical transition state theory / variational Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus (2DME/SCTST/vRRKM) approach has been used to compute reaction rate coefficients of •OH with CH 3 OH over a wide range of temperatures (10 - 2500 K) and pressures (10 -1 -10 4 Torr) based on a potential energy surface that has been constructed using a modification of the HEAT thermochemical protocol. The calculated results show that the title reaction is nearly pressure-independent when T > 250 K, but depends strongly on pressure at lower temperatures. Also, the preferred mechanism and rate constants are found to be very sensitive to temperature. The reaction pathway CH 3 OH + • OH → CH 3 O • + H 2 O proceeds exclusively through tunneling at exceedingly low temperatures (T ≤50 K) typical of those established in interstellar environments. In this regime, the rate constant is found to increase with decreasing temperature, which agrees with low-temperature experimental results. The thermodynamically favored reaction pathway CH 3 OH + • OH → • CH 2 OH + H 2 O becomes dominant at higher temperatures (T ≥ 200 K), such as those found in Earth’s atmosphere as well as combustion environments. By modifying the ab initio barrier heights slightly, experimental rate constants from 200 to 1250 K can be satisfactorily reproduced.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2019

Modulating electronic coupling at the quantum dot/molecule interface by wavefunction engineering

In this work, we use wavefunction engineering by varying the size of Quantum Dots (QDs) and tuning the delocalization (or diffuseness) of frontier orbitals of an acceptor molecule to modulate charge transfer dynamics at the QD/molecule interface. For this purpose, we apply our recently developed bulk-adjusted linear combination of atomic orbitals (BA-LCAO) approach for nanostructures and a density functional theory (DFT) for the acceptor molecules. These electronic structure calculations, combined with extensive molecular dynamics simulations using a fragmented molecular mechanics (FraMM) force field, reveal intimate details of charge transfer across the QD/Acceptor interface. For the spherical wurtzite-(CdSe) 201 and (CdSe) 693 nanostructures, as model QDs with respective 2.8 and 4.1 nm diameters, and anthraquinone-2,3-dicarboxylic acid and its derivatives with the 7-OH, 7-OF, 10-BH, and 10-CH 2 substituents, as model molecular acceptors, we find that (1) both the electron donating and withdrawing groups greatly enhance hole transfer by means of diffusing the acceptor HOMO; (2) electron transfer is affected only by the electron donating groups; (3) solvent effects are largely negligible for the orbital overlaps, and (4) consistent with spatial confinement theories, the electron density of the smaller QD penetrates farther into the vacuum than the corresponding density of the larger QD leading to stronger coupling with the acceptor. These findings suggest that (a) one can effectively control charge transfer across the QD/molecule interface by either changing the size of the QD or by tuning diffuseness of frontier orbitals of the acceptor molecule and (b) the combination of the recently developed BA-LCAO approach for QDs with a DFT for the acceptor molecules, facilitated by the use of the FraMM force field and extensive molecular dynamics simulations, provide qualitatively accurate description of charge transfer dynamics at the QD/acceptor interface.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2019

Characterization of gas-phase thorium nitride

In this work, properties of gas-phase thorium nitride, ThN, have been experimentally determined from a combined optical and microwave spectroscopic study. An intense band near 555 nm has been assigned as the [18.0]1.5–X 2 Σ + (0,0) transition and recorded at high resolution in the presence of static electric and magnetic fields. The observed optical Stark shifts were analyzed to determine permanent electric dipole moments, $\vec{μ}_{el}$ for the [18.0]1.5 and X 2 Σ + states of 4.38 ± 0.02D and 5.11 ± 0.09D, respectively. Zeeman shifts were used to determine the magnetic g-factors. The pure rotational spectrum was recorded using a separated field optical pump/probe microwave repopulation scheme and analyzed to determine the bond length and 14 N magnetic hyperfine and nuclear electric quadrupole parameters. A molecular orbital correlation diagram and ligand field electronic structure models are used to provide a qualitative interpretation of the electronic state ordering, magneto- and electro-static properties, and hyperfine interactions. Electronic structure calculations for the X 2 Σ + state were performed, and results were compared with observations. Observed trends in $\vec{μ}_{el}$ for the ThX (X = N, S, O, F, and Cl) series are discussed.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2019

First-principles study of coupled effect of ripplocations and S-vacancies in MoS 2

Recent experiments have revealed ripplocations, atomic-scale ripplelike defects on samples of MoS 2 flakes. We use quantum mechanical calculations based on density functional theory to study the effect of ripplocations on the structural and electronic properties of single-layer MoS 2 , and, in particular, the coupling between these extended defects and the most common defects in this material, S-vacancies. We find that the formation of neutral S-vacancies is energetically more favorable in the ripplocation. In addition, we demonstrate that ripplocations alone do not introduce electronic states into the intrinsic bandgap, in contrast to S-vacancies. We study the dependence of the induced gap states on the position of the defects in the ripplocation, which has implications for the experimental characterization of MoS 2 flakes and the engineering of quantum emitters in this material. Our specific findings collectively aim to provide insights into the electronic structure of experimentally relevant defects in MoS 2 and to establish structure-property relationships for the design of MoS 2 -based quantum devices.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Quantum simulations of excited states with active-space downfolded Hamiltonians

Many-body techniques based on the double unitary coupled cluster ansatz (DUCC) can be used to downfold electronic Hamiltonians into low-dimensional active spaces. It can be shown that the resulting dimensionality reduced Hamiltonians are amenable for quantum computing. Recent studies performed for several benchmark systems using quantum phase estimation (QPE) algorithms demonstrated that these formulations can recover a significant portion of ground-state dynamical correlation effects that stem from the electron excitations outside of the active space. These results have also been confirmed in studies of ground-state potential energy surfaces using quantum simulators. In this letter, we study the effectiveness of the DUCC formalism in describing excited states. We also emphasize the role of the QPE formalism and its stochastic nature in discovering/identifying excited states or excited-state processes in situations when the knowledge about the true configurational structure of a sought after excited state is limited or postulated (due to the specific physics driving excited-state processes of interest). In this context, we can view the QPE algorithm as an engine for verifying various hypotheses for excited-state processes and providing statistically meaningful results that correspond to the electronic state(s) with the largest overlap with a postulated configurational structure. We illustrate these ideas on examples of strongly cor- related molecular systems, characterized by small energy gaps and high density of quasi-degenerate states around the Fermi level.

quantum chemistry, quantum computing, computationa↗
DOE OSTI2023

Prediction of impact sensitivity, heat of formation and heat of explosion using atomic connectivity

In these proceedings we revisit a large collection of explosives and explosive descriptors with the goal of predicting impact sensitivity using only local atomic environments that can be deciphered from molecular SMILES strings as descriptors without utilizing empirically measured values or computationally expensive electronic structure calculations. From the original database of nearly 500 descriptors, removing empirically measured and electronic structure values decreased the number of descriptors to 135, which we reduced to 18 the most important descriptors using Random Forests. The condensed model predicted impact sensitivity with essentially the same accuracy as the existing, more complex model (R 2 = 0.788 and RSME = 0.312), while remaining applicable to all types of explosives (Peroxides, azides, C-Nitros, Nitroamines, Nitrate Esters, etc.). In addition to impact sensitivity, we proposed similar models to accurately predict values heat of formation (ΔH f ) and heat of explosion (Q), with R 2 = 0.966 and 0.916, respectively. In conclusion, the work in these proceedings allows for prediction of explosive performance and sensitivity with only chemical structure information and an estimate of density.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2020

Machine learning Frenkel Hamiltonian parameters to accelerate simulations of exciton dynamics

In this manuscript, we develop multiple machine learning (ML) models to accelerate a scheme for parameterizing site-based models of exciton dynamics from all-atom configurations of condensed phase sexithiophene systems. This scheme encodes the details of a system’s specific molecular morphology in the correlated distributions of model parameters through the analysis of many single-molecule excited-state electronic-structure calculations. These calculations yield excitation energies for each molecule in the system and the network of pair-wise intermolecular electronic couplings. In this work, we demonstrate that the excitation energies can be accurately predicted using a kernel ridge regression (KRR) model with Coulomb matrix featurization. We present two ML models for predicting intermolecular couplings. The first one utilizes a deep neural network and bi-molecular featurization to predict the coupling directly, which we find to perform poorly. The second one utilizes a KRR model to predict unimolecular transition densities, which can subsequently be analyzed to compute the coupling. We find that the latter approach performs excellently, indicating that an effective, generalizable strategy for predicting simple bimolecular properties is through the indirect application of ML to predict higher-order unimolecular properties. Such an approach necessitates a much smaller feature space and can incorporate the insight of well-established molecular physics.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗