No Arabic abstract
We present high-quality optical data and density functional perturbation theory calculations for the vibrational spectrum of solid picene (C$_{22}$H$_{14}$) under pressure up to 8 GPa. First-principles calculations reproduce with a remarkable accuracy the pressure effects on both frequency and intensities of the phonon peaks experimentally observed . Through a detailed analysis of the phonon eigenvectors, We use the projection on molecular eigenmodes to unambiguously fit the experimental spectra, resolving complicated spectral structures, in a system with hundreds of phonon modes. With these projections, we can also quantify the loss of molecular character under pressure. Our results indicate that picene, despite a sim 20 % compression of the unit cell, remains substantially a molecular solid up to 8 GPa, with phonon modes displaying a smooth and uniform hardening with pressure. The Grueneisen parameter of the 1380 cm^{-1} a_1 Raman peak ($gamma_p=0.1$) is much lower than the effective value ($gamma_d=0.8$) due to K doping. This is an indication that the phonon softening in K doped samples is mainly due to charge transfer and electron-phonon coupling.
Recently, Mitsuhashi et al., have observed superconductivity with transition temperature up to 18 K in potassium doped picene (C22H14), a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon compound [Nature 464 (2010) 76]. Theoretical analysis indicate the importance of electron-phonon coupling in the superconducting mechanisms of these systems, with different emphasis on inter- and intra-molecular vibrations, depending on the approximations used. Here we present a combined experimental and ab-initio study of the Raman and infrared spectrum of undoped solid picene, which allows us to unanbiguously assign the vibrational modes. This combined study enables the identification of the modes which couple strongly to electrons and hence can play an important role in the superconducting properties of the doped samples.
To explore the electronic structure of the first aromatic superconductor, potassium-doped solid picene which has been recently discovered by Mitsuhashi et al with the transition temperatures $T_c=7 - 20$ K, we have obtained a first-principles electronic structure of solid picene as a first step toward the elucidation of the mechanism of the superconductivity. The undoped crystal is found to have four conduction bands, which are characterized in terms of the maximally localized Wannier orbitals. We have revealed how the band structure reflects the stacked arrangement of molecular orbitals for both undoped and doped (K$_3$picene) cases, where the bands are not rigid. The Fermi surface for K$_3$picene is a curious composite of a warped two-dimensional surface and a three-dimensional one.
We study the oxo-hexametallate Li$_7$TaO$_6$ with first-principles and classical molecular dynamics simulations, obtaining a low activation barrier for diffusion of $sim$0.29 eV and a high ionic conductivity of $5.7 times 10^{-4}$ S cm$^{-1}$ at room temperature (300 K). We find evidence for a wide electrochemical stability window from both calculations and experiments, suggesting its viable use as a solid-state electrolyte in next-generation solid-state Li-ion batteries. To assess its applicability in an electrochemical energy storage system, we performed electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements on multicrystalline pellets, finding substantial ionic conductivity, if below the values predicted from simulation. We further elucidate the relationship between synthesis conditions and the observed ionic conductivity using X-ray diffraction, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and study the effects of Zr and Mo doping.
We report the pressure dependences of the superconducting transition temperature (T_c) in several perovskite-type Fe-based superconductors through the resistivity measurements up to ~4 GPa. In Ca_4(Mg,Ti)_3Fe_2As_2O_y with the highest T_c of 47 K in the present study, the T_c keeps almost constant up to ~1 GPa, and starts to decrease above it. From the comparison among several systems, we obtained a tendency that low T_c with the longer a-axis length at ambient pressure increases under pressure, but high T_c with the shorter a-axis length at ambient pressure hardly increases. We also report the ^75As-NMR results on Sr_2VFeAsO_3. NMR spectrum suggests that the magnetic ordering occurs at low temperatures accompanied by some inhomogeneity. In the superconducting state, we confirmed the anomaly by the occurrence of superconductivity in the nuclear spin lattice relaxation rate 1/T_1, but the spin fluctuations unrelated with the superconductivity are dominant. It is conjectured that the localized V-3d moments are magnetically ordered and their electrons do not contribute largely to the Fermi surface and the superconductivity in Sr_2VFeAsO_3.
We have obtained the first-principles electronic structure of solid coronene, which has been recently discovered to exhibit superconductivity with potassium doping. Since coronene, along with picene, the first aromatic superconductor, now provide a class of superconductors as solids of aromatic compounds, here we compare the two cases in examining the electronic structures. In the undoped coronene crystal, where the molecules are arranged in a herringbone structure with two molecules in a unit cell, the conduction band above an insulating gap is found to comprise four bands, which basically originate from the lowest two unoccupied molecular orbitals (doubly-degenerate, reflecting the high symmetry of the molecular shape) in an isolated molecule but the bands are entangled as in solid picene. The Fermi surface for a candidate of the structure of K$_x$coronene with $x=3$, for which superconductivity is found, comprises multiple sheets, as in doped picene but exhibiting a larger anisotropy with different topology.