No Arabic abstract
Numerous physical properties of CaPd3Ti4O12 (CPTO) and CaPd3V4O12 (CPVO) double perovskites have been explored based on density functional theory (DFT). The calculated structural parameters fairly agree with the experimental data to confirm their stability. The mechanical stability of these two compounds was clearly observed by the Born stability criteria. To rationalize the mechanical behavior, we investigate elastic constants, bulk, shear and Youngs modulus, Pughs ratio, Poissons ratio and elastic anisotropy index. The ductility index confirms that both materials are ductile in nature. The electronic band structure of CPTO and CPVO reveals the direct band gap semiconducting in nature and metallic characteristics, respectively. The calculated partial density of states indicates the strong hybridization between Pd 4d and O 2p orbital electrons for CPTO and Pd 4d and V 3d O 2p for CPVO. The study of electronic charge density map confirms the coexistence of covalent, ionic and metallic bonding for both compounds. Fermi surface calculation of CPVO ensures both electron and hole like surfaces indicating the multiple band nature. In the midst of optical properties, photoconductivity and absorption coefficient of both compounds reveal well qualitative compliance with consequences of band structure computations. Among the thermodynamic properties, the Debye temperature has been calculated to correlate its topical features including thermoelectric behavior. The studied thermoelectric transport properties of CPTO yielded the Seebeck coefficient (186 microVK-1), power factor (11.9 microWcm-1K-2) and figure of merit (ZT) value of about 0.8 at 800 K indicate that this material could be a promising candidate for thermoelectric device application.
First principles electronic structure calculations have been carried out on ordered double perovskites Sr_2BBO_6 (for B = Cr or Fe and B 4d and 5d transition metal elements) with increasing number of valence electrons at the B-sites, and on Ba_2MnReO_6 as well as Ba_2FeMoO_6. The Curie temperatures are estimated ab initio from the electronic structures obtained with the local spin-density functional approximation, full-potential generalized gradient approximation and/or the LDA+U method (U - Hubbard parameter). Frozen spin-spirals are used to model the excited states needed to evaluate the spherical approximation for the Curie temperatures. In cases, where the induced moments on the oxygen was found to be large, the determination of the Curie temperature is improved by additional exchange functions between the oxygen atoms and between oxygen and B and B atoms. A pronounced systematics can be found among the experimental and/or calculated Curie temperatures and the total valence electrons of the transition metal elements.
In search of better thermoelectric materials, we have systematically investigated the thermoelectric properties of a 122 Zintl phase compound EuCd$_{2}$As$_{2}$ using textit{ab-initio} density functional theory and semi-classical Boltzmann transport theory within constant relaxation time approximation. Considering the ground state magnetic structure which is A-type antiferromagnetic (A-AFM) and non-magnetic (NM) structure, we evaluated various thermoelectric parameters such as Seebeck coefficient, electrical and thermal conductivity, power factor and figure of merit (ZT) as function temperature as well as chemical potential. Almost all thermoelectric parameters show anisotropy between $xx$ and $zz$ directions which is stronger in case of A-AFM than in NM. Both A-AFM and NM phase of the compound display better thermoelectric performance when hole doped. We observed high Seebeck coefficient and low electronic thermal conductivity in A-AFM phase along $zz$ direction. The remarkably high ZT of 1.79 at 500 K in A-AFM phase and ZT$sim$1 in NM phase suggest that EuCd$_{2}$As$_{2}$ is a viable thermoelectric material when p-doped.
Electronic structure of FeGa3 has been studied using experiments and ab-initio calculations. Magnetization measurements show that FeGa3 is inherently diamagnetic in nature. Our studies indicate that the previously reported magnetic moment on the Fe atoms in FeGa3 is not an intrinsic property of FeGa3, but is primarily due to the presence of disorder, defects, grain boundaries etc that break the symmetry about the Fe dimers. Analysis of the results obtained from magnetic measurements, photoelectron spectroscopy, Fe K-edge X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy and ab-initio calculations clearly indicates that, the effects of on-site Coulomb repulsion between the Fe 3d electrons do not play any role in determining the electronic and magnetic properties of FeGa3. Detailed analysis of results of single crystal and poycrystalline FeGa3, helps to resolve the discrepancy in the electronic and magnetic properties in FeGa3 existing in the literature, consistently.
We study the Raman spectrum of CrI$_3$, a material that exhibits magnetism in a single-layer. We employ first-principles calculations within density functional theory to determine the effects of polarization, strain, and incident angle on the phonon spectra of the 3D bulk and the single-layer 2D structure, for both the high- and low-temperature crystal structures. Our results are in good agreement with existing experimental measurements and serve as a guide for additional investigations to elucidate the physics of this interesting material.
The electronic and structural properties of (i) boron doped graphene sheets, and (ii) the chemisorption processes of hydrogen adatoms on the boron doped graphene sheets have been examined by {it ab initio} total energy calculations.