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At least 19 records

Low-lying vibronic level structure of the ground state of the methoxy radical: Slow electron velocity-map imaging (SEVI) spectra and Köppel-Domcke-Cederbaum (KDC) vibronic Hamiltonian calculations

A joint experimental and theoretical study is reported on the low-lying vibronic level structure of the ground state of the methoxy radical using slow photoelectron velocity-map imaging spectroscopy of cryogenically cooled, mass-selected anions (cryo-SEVI) and Köppel-Domcke-Cederbaum (KDC) vibronic Hamiltonian calculations. The KDC vibronic model Hamiltonian in the present study was parametrized using high-level quantum chemistry, allowing the assignment of the cryo-SEVI spectra for vibronic levels of CH 3 O up to 2000 cm –1 and of CD 3 O up to 1500 cm –1 above the vibrational origin, using calculated vibronic wave functions. The adiabatic electron affinities of CH 3 O and CD 3 O are determined from the cryo-SEVI spectra to be 1.5689 ± 0.0007 eV and 1.5548 ± 0.0007 eV, respectively, demonstrating improved precision compared to previous work. Experimental peak splittings of <10 cm –1 are resolved between the e 1/2 and e 3/2 components of the 6 1 and 5 1 vibronic levels. A pair of spin-vibronic levels at 1638 and 1677 cm –1 were predicted in the calculation as the e 1/2 and e 3/2 components of 6 2 levels and experimentally resolved for the first time. The strong variation of the spin-orbit splittings with a vibrational quantum number is in excellent agreement between theory and experiment. In conclusion, the observation of signals from nominally forbidden a 1 vibronic levels in the cryo-SEVI spectra also provides direct evidence of vibronic coupling between ground and electronically excited states of methoxy.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Depth-dependent atomic valence determination by synchrotron techniques

The properties of many materials can be strongly affected by the atomic valence of the contained individual elements, which may vary at surfaces and other interfaces. These variations can have a critical impact on material performance in applications. In this work, a non-destructive method for the determination of layer-by-layer atomic valence as a function of material thickness is presented for La 0.7 Sr 0.3 MnO 3 (LSMO) thin films. The method utilizes a combination of bulk- and surface-sensitive X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) detection modes; here, the modes are fluorescence yield and surface-sensitive total electron yield. The weighted-average Mn atomic valence as measured from the two modes are simultaneously fitted using a model for the layer-by-layer variation of valence based on theoretical model Hamiltonian calculations. Using this model, the Mn valence profile in LSMO thin film is extracted and the valence within each layer is determined to within an uncertainty of a few percent. The approach presented here could be used to study the layer-dependent valence in other systems or extended to different properties of materials such as magnetism.

Hamiltonian calculations↗

Doping topological Dirac semimetal with magnetic impurities: Electronic structure of Mn-doped Cd 3 ⁢As 2

The prospect of transforming a Dirac topological semimetal (TSM) into a Weyl TSM phase, following doping by magnetic impurities, is central to TSM applications. The magnetic field from polarized 𝑑 levels of magnetic impurities produces a field with a sharp local structure. To what extent magnetic impurities act in the same manner as an applied field and what are the effects of such a field on the electronic structure of a Dirac TSM are the subject of this paper. We present electronic structure calculations of bulk Cd 3 ⁢As 2 with substitutional doping of Mn impurities in the dilute alloy range. Quasiparticle 𝐺⁡𝑊 (QS⁢𝐺⁡𝑊) ab initio electronic structure calculations are used in conjunction with 𝑘 · 𝑝 model Hamiltonian calculations. As expected, we observe the splitting of the Dirac points into pairs of Weyl points following the doping with Mn. We also show that the electronic structure of Mn-doped Cd 3⁢ As 2 can be emulated by the electronic structure of pristine Cd 3⁢ As 2 with an appropriate external magnetic field. Some properties of the conductivity of bulk Cd 3 ⁢As 2 for different magnetic field orientations are also investigated. Our results inform future opportunities for unique device functionality based on band structure tuning not found in conventional magnetic Weyl TSM.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

An Energy Principle for Ideal MHD Equilibria with Flows

In the standard ideal MHD energy principle for equilibria with no flows, the stability criterion, which is the defi niteness of the perturbed potential energy, is usually constructed from the linearized equation of motion. Equivalently while more straightforwardly, it can also be obtained from the second variation of the Hamiltonian calculated with proper constraints. For equilibria with flows, a stability criterion was proposed from the linearized equation of motion, but not explained as an energy principle1. In this paper, the second variation of the Hamiltonian is found to provide a stability criterion equivalent to, while more straightforward than, what was constructed from the linearized equation of motion. To calculate the variations of the Hamiltonian, a complete set of constraints on the dynamics of the perturbations is derived from the Euler-Poincare structure of the ideal MHD. In addition, a previous calculation of the second variation of the Hamiltonian was claimed to give a different stability criterion2, and in this paper we argue such a claim is incorrect.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Mass-number and excitation-energy dependence of the spin cutoff parameter

Here, the spin cutoff parameter determining the nuclear level density spin distribution ρ(J) is defined through the spin projection as < J 2 z > 1/2 or equivalently for spherical nuclei, (< J(J+1) >/3) 1/2 . It is needed to divide the total level density into levels as a function of J. To obtain the total level density at the neutron binding energy from the s-wave resonance count, the spin cutoff parameter is also needed. The spin cutoff parameter has been calculated as a function of excitation energy and mass with a super-conducting Hamiltonian. Calculations have been compared with two commonly used semiempirical formulas. A need for further measurements is also observed. Some complications for deformed nuclei are discussed. The quality of spin cut off parameter data derived from isomeric ratio measurement is examined.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Quadrupole collectivity and shell closure in neutron-rich nuclei near N = 126

Here, we introduce a comprehensive study on the low-lying states of neutron-rich Er, Yb, Hf, and W isotopes across the N = 126 shell with a multireference covariant density functional theory. Beyond-mean-field effects from shape mixing and symmetry restoration on the observables that are relevant for understanding quadrupole collectivity and underlying shell structure are investigated. The general features of low-lying states in closed-shell nuclei are retained in these four isotopes around N = 126 , even though the shell gap is overall quenched by about 30% with the beyond-mean-field effects. These results are consistent with the previous generator-coordinate calculations based on Gogny forces, but much smaller than that predicted by the collective Hamiltonian calculation. It implies that the beyond-mean-field effects on the r -process abundances before the third peak at A ≈ 195 might be more moderate than that reported by Arcones and Bertsch [ Phys. Rev. Lett. 108 , 151101 (2012) ].

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

First principles transport coefficients and reaction rates of Ar{sub 2}{sup +} ions in argon for cold plasma jet modeling

Momentum-transfer collision cross-sections and integral collision cross-sections for the collision-induced dissociation are calculated for collisions of ionized argon dimers with argon atoms using a nonadiabatic semiclassical method with the electronic Hamiltonian calculated on the fly via a diatomics-in-molecules semiempirical model as well as inverse-method modeling based on simple isotropic rigid-core potential. The collision cross-sections are then used in an optimized Monte Carlo code for evaluations of the Ar{sub 2}{sup +} mobility in argon gas, longitudinal diffusion coefficient, and collision-induced dissociation rates. A thorough comparison of various theoretical calculations as well as with available experimental data on the Ar{sub 2}{sup +} mobility and collision cross-sections is performed. Good agreement is found between both theoretical approaches and the experiment. Analysis of the role of inelastic processes in Ar{sub 2}{sup +}/Ar collisions is also provided.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Accurate quantum dynamics calculations of vibrational spectrum of dideuteromethane CH{sub 2}D{sub 2}

We report a rigorous variational study of the infrared (IR) vibrational spectra of both CH{sub 2}D{sub 2} and {sup 13}CH{sub 2}D{sub 2} isotopomers using an exact molecular Hamiltonian. Calculations are carried out using a recently developed multi-layer Lanczos algorithm based on the accurate refined Wang and Carrington potential energy surface of methane and the low-order truncated ab initio dipole moment surface of Yurchenko et al. [J. Mol. Spectrosc. 291, 69 (2013)]. All well converged 357 vibrational energy levels up to 6100 cm{sup −1} of CH{sub 2}D{sub 2} are obtained, together with a comparison to previous calculations and 91 experimental bands available. The calculated frequencies are in excellent agreement with the experimental results and give a root-mean-square error of 0.67 cm{sup −1}. In particular, we also compute the transition intensities from the vibrational ground state for both isotopomers. Based on the theoretical results, 20 experimental bands are suggested to be re-assigned. Surprisingly, an anomalous C isotopic effect is discovered in the nν{sub 5} modes of CH{sub 2}D{sub 2}. The predicted IR spectra provide useful information for understanding those unknown bands.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Coupled Cluster Study of the Heats of Formation of UF 6 and the Uranium Oxyhalides, UO 2 X 2 (X = F, Cl, Br, I, and At)

The atomization enthalpies of the U(VI) species UF6 and the uranium oxyhalides UO 2 X 2 (X=F, Cl, Br, I, At) were calculated using a composite relativistic Feller-Peterson-Dixon (FPD) approach based on scalar relativistic DKH3-CCSD(T) with extrapolations to the CBS limit. The inherent multideterminantal nature of the U atom was mitigated by utilizing the singly charged atomic cation in all calculations with correction back to the neutral asymptote via the accurate ionization energy of the U atom. The effects of SO coupling were recovered using full 4-component CCSD(T) with contributions due to the Gaunt Hamiltonian calculated using Dirac-Hartree-Fock. The final atomization enthalpy for UF 6 (752.2 kcal/mol) was within 2.5 kcal/mol of the experimental value, but unfortunately the latter carries a ±2.4 kcal/mol uncertainty that is predominantly due to the experimental uncertainty in the formation enthalpy of U atom. The analogous value for UO 2 F 2 (607.6 kcal/mol) was in nearly exact agreement with experiment, but the latter has a stated experimental uncertainty of ±4.3 kcal/mol. The FPD atomization enthalpy for UO 2 Cl 2 (540.4 kcal/mol) was within the experimental error limits of ±5.5 kcal/mol. FPD atomization energies for the non-U-containing molecules (used for reaction enthalpies) H 2 O and HX (X=F, Cl, Br, I, At) were within at most 0.3 kcal/mol of their experimental values where available. The FPD atomization enthalpies, together with FPD reaction enthalpies for two different reactions, were used to determine heats of formation for all species of this work with estimated uncertainties of ±4 kcal/mol. The calculated heat of formation for UF 6 (-511.0 kcal/mol) is within 2.5 kcal/mol of the accurately-known (±0.45 kcal/mol) experimental value.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Optimization of Condensed Matter Physics Application with OpenMP Tasking Model

The Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG++) is a condensed matter physics application used to study superconductivity properties of materials. It’s main computations consist of calculating hamiltonian matrix which requires sparse matrix-vector multiplications. This paper presents task-based parallelization and optimization strategies of the Hamiltonian algorithm. The algorithm is implemented as a mini-application in C++ and parallelized with OpenMP. The optimization leverages tasking features, such as dependencies or priorities included in the OpenMP standard 4.5. The code refactoring targets performance as much as programmability. The optimized version achieves a speedup of 8.0× with 8 threads and 20.5× with 40 threads on a Power9 computing node while reducing the memory consumption to 90 MB with respect to the original code, by adding less than ten OpenMP directives.

Criado, Joel↗

Water dissociation on Ni(100), Ni(110), and Ni(111) surfaces: Reaction path approach to mode selectivity

We performed a comparative study of mode-selectivity of water dissociation on Ni(100), Ni(110), and Ni(111) surfaces at the same level of theory using a fully quantum approach based on the reaction path Hamiltonian. Calculations show that the barrier to water dissociation on the Ni(110) surface is significantly lower compared to its close-packed counterparts. Transition states for this reaction on all three surfaces involve the elongation of one of the O–H bonds. Furthermore, a significant decrease in the symmetric stretching and bending mode frequencies near the transition state is observed in all three cases and in the vibrational adiabatic approximation, excitation of these softened modes results in a significant enhancement in reactivity. Inclusion of non-adiabatic couplings between modes results in the asymmetric stretching mode showing a similar enhancement of reactivity as the symmetric stretching mode. Dissociation probabilities calculated at a surface temperature of 300 K showed higher reactivity at lower collision energies compared to that of the static surface case, underlining the importance of lattice motion in enhancing reactivity. Mode selective behavior is similar on all the surfaces. Molecules with one-quantum of vibrational excitation in the symmetric stretch, at lower energies (up to 0.45 eV), are more reactive on Ni(110) than the Ni(100) and Ni(111) surfaces. But, the dissociation probabilities approach saturation on all the surfaces at higher incident energy values. Ultimately, Ni(110) is found to be highly reactive toward water dissociation among the low-index nickel surfaces owing to a low reaction barrier resulting from the openness and corrugation of the surface. These results show that the mode-selective behavior does not vary with different crystal facets of Ni qualitatively, but there is a significant quantitative effect.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

A magnetic phase diagram for nanoscale epitaxial BiFeO 3 films

BiFeO 3 thin films have attracted considerable attention by virtue of their potential application in low-energy spintronic and magnonic devices. BiFeO 3 possesses an intricate magnetic structure, characterized by a spin cycloid with period ~62 nm that governs the functional magnonic response, and which can be modulated or even destroyed by strain, magnetic and electric fields, or chemical doping. The literature on (110)-oriented BiFeO 3 films is not explicit in defining the conditions under which this cycloid persists, as its presence depends on synthesis method and thin-film boundary conditions, especially in the sub-100 nm thickness regime. This report aims to end “trial and error” approaches in determining the conditions under which this cycloid and its associated functional magnonic response exist. We show that in specific crystallographic orientations of epitaxial BiFeO 3 , an unexplored strain parameter—the distortion in the ab plane of the monoclinic unit cell—significantly influences the spin structure. Combining Mössbauer spectroscopy and low-energy Raman spectroscopy with first-principles-based effective Hamiltonian calculations, we show that both average strain and this distortion destroy the cycloid. For films grown on (110)-oriented SrTiO 3 substrates, if the BiFeO 3 lattice parameters a and b differ by more than about 1.2%, the cycloid is destabilized, resulting in a pseudocollinear magnetic order ground state. We are thereby able to construct a phase diagram of the spin structure for nanoscale epitaxial BiFeO 3 films, which aims to resolve long-standing literature inconsistencies and provide powerful guidelines for the design of future magnonic and spintronic devices.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Magnetic field-dependent low-energy magnon dynamics in α–RuCl 3

Revealing the spin excitations of complex quantum magnets is key to developing a minimal model that explains the underlying magnetic correlations in the ground state. We investigate the low-energy magnons in α-RuCl 3 by combining time-domain terahertz spectroscopy under an external magnetic field and model Hamiltonian calculations. We observe two absorption peaks around 2.0 and 2.4 meV, which we attribute to zone-center spin waves. Using linear spin-wave theory with only nearest-neighbor terms of the exchange couplings, we calculate the antiferromagnetic resonance frequencies and reveal their dependence on an external field applied parallel to the nearest-neighbor Ru-Ru bonds. Furthermore, we find that the magnon behavior in an applied magnetic field can be understood only by including an off-diagonal Γ exchange term to the minimal Heisenberg-Kitaev model. Such an anisotropic exchange interaction that manifests itself as a result of strong spin-orbit coupling can naturally account for the observed mixing of the modes at higher fields strengths.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Magnetism out of antisite disorder in the J = 0 compound Ba 2 YIrO 6

Here, we systematically investigate the magnetic properties and local structure of Ba 2 YIrO 6 to demonstrate that Y and Ir lattice defects in the form of antiphase boundary or clusters of antisite disorder affect the magnetism observed in this 5d 4 compound. The experimental investigation involved comparison of the magnetic properties and atomic imaging of (1) a slow-cooled crystal, (2) a crystal quenched from 900°C after growth, and (3) a crystal grown using a faster cooling rate during growth than the slow-cooled one. Atomic-scale imaging by scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) shows that quenching from 900°C introduces Ir-rich antiphase boundaries in the crystals, and a faster cooling rate during crystal growth leads to clusters of Y and Ir antisite disorder. Compared to the slow-cooled crystals, Ba 2 YIrO 6 crystals with clusters of antisite defects have a larger effective moment and a larger saturation moment, while quenched crystals with Ir-rich antiphase boundary show a slightly suppressed moment. Our DFT and model magnetic Hamiltonian calculations suggest magnetic condensation is unlikely, as the energy to be gained from superexchange is small compared to the spin-orbit gap. However, once Y is replaced by Ir in the antisite disordered region, the picture of local nonmagnetic singlets breaks down and magnetism can be induced. This is because of (a) enhanced interactions due to increased orbital overlap and (b) increased number of orbitals mediating the interactions. Our work highlights the importance of lattice defects in understanding the experimentally observed magnetism in Ba 2 YIrO 6 and other J = 0 systems.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Theoretical methods to design and test quantum simulators for the compact Abelian Higgs model

The lattice compact Abelian Higgs model is a nonperturbative regularized formulation of low-energy scalar quantum electrodynamics. In 1+1 dimensions, this model can be quantum simulated using a ladder-shaped optical lattice with Rydberg-dressed atoms. In this setup, one spatial dimension is used to carry the angular momentum of the quantum rotors. One can use truncations corresponding to spin-2 and spin-1 to build local Hilbert spaces associated with the links of the lattice. We argue that ladder-shaped configurable arrays of Rydberg atoms can be used for the same purpose. We make concrete proposals involving two and three Rydberg atoms to build one local spin-1 space (a qutrit). We show that the building blocks of the Hamiltonian calculations are models with one and two spins. We compare target and simulators using perturbative and numerical methods. The two-atom setup provides an easily controllable simulator of the one-spin model while the three-atom setup involves solving nonlinear equations. We discuss approximate methods to couple two spin-1 spaces. The article provides analytical and numerical tools necessary to design and build the proposed simulators with current technology.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗