No Arabic abstract
The calculation of self-energy corrections to the electron bands of a metal requires the evaluation of the intraband contribution to the polarizability in the small-q limit. When neglected, as in standard GW codes for semiconductors and insulators, a spurious gap opens at the Fermi energy. Systematic methods to include intraband contributions to the polarizability exist, but require a computationally intensive Fermi-surface integration. We propose a numerically cheap and stable method, based on a fit of the power expansion of the polarizability in the small-q region. We test it on the homogeneous electron gas and on real metals such as sodium and aluminum.
The potential of a wide range of layered ternary carbide and nitride MAX phases as conductors in interconnect metal lines in advanced CMOS technology nodes has been evaluated using automated first principles simulations based on density functional theory. The resistivity scaling potential of these compounds, i.e. the sensitivity of their resistivity to reduced line dimensions, has been benchmarked against Cu and Ru by evaluating their transport properties within a semiclassical transport formalism. In addition, their cohesive energy has been assessed as a proxy for the resistance against electromigration and the need for diffusion barriers. The results indicate that numerous MAX phases show promise as conductors in interconnects of advanced CMOS technology nodes.
Core-level shifts and core-hole screening effects in alloy formation are studied ``ab initio by constrained-density-functional total-energy calculations. For our case study, the ordered intermetallic alloy MgAu, final-state effects are essential to account for the experimental Mg 1s shift, while they are negligible for Au 4f. We explain the differences in the screening by analyzing the calculated charge density response to the core hole perturbation.
Electron-phonon ($e$-ph) interactions are pervasive in condensed matter, governing phenomena such as transport, superconductivity, charge-density waves, polarons and metal-insulator transitions. First-principles approaches enable accurate calculations of $e$-ph interactions in a wide range of solids. However, they remain an open challenge in correlated electron systems (CES), where density functional theory often fails to describe the ground state. Therefore reliable $e$-ph calculations remain out of reach for many transition metal oxides, high-temperature superconductors, Mott insulators, planetary materials and multiferroics. Here we show first-principles calculations of $e$-ph interactions in CES, using the framework of Hubbard-corrected density functional theory (DFT+$U$ ) and its linear response extension (DFPT+$U$), which can describe the electronic structure and lattice dynamics of many CES. We showcase the accuracy of this approach for a prototypical Mott system, CoO, carrying out a detailed investigation of its $e$-ph interactions and electron spectral functions. While standard DFPT gives unphysically divergent and short-ranged $e$-ph interactions, DFPT+$U$ is shown to remove the divergences and properly account for the long-range Frohlich interaction, allowing us to model polaron effects in a Mott insulator. Our work establishes a broadly applicable and affordable approach for quantitative studies of e-ph interactions in CES, a novel theoretical tool to interpret experiments in this broad class of materials.
We present results of systematic fully relativistic first-principles calculations of the uniaxial magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) of a disordered and partially ordered tetragonal Fe-Co alloy using the coherent potential approximation (CPA). This alloy has recently become a promising system for thin ferromagnetic films with a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. We find that existing theoretical approaches to homogeneous random bulk Fe-Co alloys, based on a simple virtual crystal approximation (VCA), overestimate the maximum MAE values obtained in the CPA by a factor of four. This pronounced difference is ascribed to the strong disorder in the minority spin channel of real alloys, which is neglected in the VCA and which leads to a broadening of the d-like eigenstates at the Fermi energy and to the reduction of the MAE. The ordered Fe-Co alloys with a maximum L1_0-like atomic long-range order can exhibit high values of the MAE, which, however, get dramatically reduced by small perturbations of the perfect order.
On the basis of a first-principles, relativistic electronic structure theory of finite temperature metallic magnetism, we investigate the variation of magnetic anisotropy, K, with magnetisation, M, in metallic ferromagnets. We apply the theory to the high magnetic anisotropy material, L1_0-ordered FePt, and find its uniaxial K consistent with a magnetic easy axis perpendicular to the Fe/Pt layering for all M and to be proportional to M^2 for a broad range of values of M. For small M, near the Curie temperature, the calculations pick out the easy axis for the onset of magnetic order. Our results are in good agreement with recent experimental measurements on this important magnetic material.