No Arabic abstract
The Li2SiO3 compound, a ternary electrolyte compound of Lithium-ion based batteries, exhibits unique geometric and band structures, an atom-dominated energy spectrum, charge densities distributions, atom and orbital-projected density of states, and strong optical responses. The state-of-the-art analysis, based on an ab-initio simulation, have successfully confirmed the concise physical/chemical picture and the orbital bonding in Li-O and Si-O bonds. Additionally, the unusual optical response behavior includes a large redshift of the onset frequency due to the extremely strong excitonic effect, the polarization of optical properties along three-directions, 22 optical excitations structures and the most prominent plasmon mode in terms of the dielectric functions, energy loss functions, absorption coefficients, and reflectance spectra. The close connections of electronic and optical properties can identify a specific orbital hybridization for each distinct excitation channel. The developed theoretical framework will be very appropriate for fully comprehending the diverse phenomena of cathode/electrolyte/anode materials in ion-based batteries.
Lithium metasilicate (Li2SiO3) has attracted considerable interest as a promising electrolyte material for potential use in lithium batteries. However, its electronic properties are still not thoroughly understood. In this work, density functional theory calculations were adopted, our calculations find out that Li2SiO3 exhibits unique lattice symmetry (orthorhombic crystal), valence and conduction bands, charge density distribution, and van Hove singularities. Delicate analyses, the critical multi-orbital hybridizations in Li-O and Si-O bonds 2s- (2s, 2px, 2py, 2pz) and (3s, 3px, 3py, 3pz)- (2s, 2px, 2py, 2pz), respectively was identified. In particular, this system shows a huge indirect-gap of 5.077 eV. Therefore, there exist many strong covalent bonds, with obvious anisotropy and non-uniformity. On the other hand, the spin-dependent magnetic configurations are thoroughly absent. The theoretical framework could be generalized to explore the essential properties of cathode and anode materials of oxide compounds.
The formation and disassociation of excitons plays a crucial role in any photovoltaic or photocatalytic application. However, excitonic effects are seldom considered in materials discovery studies due to the monumental computational cost associated with the examination of these properties. Here, we study the excitonic properties of nearly 50 photocatalysts using state-of-the-art Bethe-Salpeter formalism. These $sim$ 50 materials were recently recognized as promising photocatalysts for CO$_2$ reduction through a data-driven screening of 68,860 materials. Here, we propose three screening criteria based on the optical properties of these materials, taking excitonic effects into account, to further down select 6 materials. Remarkably we find a strong correlation between the exciton binding energies obtained from the Bethe-Salpeter formalism and those obtained from the computationally much less-expensive Wannier-Mott model for these chemically diverse $sim$ 50 materials. This work presents a new paradigm towards the inclusion of excitonic effects in future materials discovery for solar-energy harvesting applications.
A first principles approach is presented for calculations of optical -- ultraviolet (UV) spectra including excitonic effects. The approach is based on Bethe-Salpeter equation calculations using the textsc{NBSE} code combined with ground-state density-functional theory calculations from the electronic structure code textsc{ABINIT}. Test calculations for bulk Si are presented, and the approach is illustrated with calculations of the optical spectra and birefringence of $alpha$-phase SiO$_2$ and the rutile and anatase phases of TiO$_2$. An interpretation of the strong birefringence in TiO$_2$ is presented.
We present results of correlated pseudopotential calculations of an exciton in a pair of vertically stacked InGaAs/GaAs dots. Competing effects of strain, geometry, and band mixing lead to many unexpected features missing in contemporary models. The first four excitonic states are all optically active at small interdot separation, due to the broken symmetry of the single-particle states. We quantify the degree of entanglement of the exciton wavefunctions and show its sensitivity to interdot separation. We suggest ways to spectroscopically identify and maximize the entanglement of exciton states.
The calculated quasiparticle band structure of bulk hexagonal boron nitride using the all-electron GW approximation shows that this compound is an indirect-band-gap semiconductor. The solution of the Bethe-Salpeter equation for the electron-hole two-particle Green function has been used to compute its optical spectra and the results are found in excellent agreement with available experimental data. A detailed analysis is made for the excitonic structures within the band gap and found that the excitons belong to the Frenkel class and are tightly confined within the layers. The calculated exciton binding energy is much larger than that obtained by Watanabe {it et al} using a Wannier model to interpret their experimental results and assuming that h-BN is a direct-band-gap semiconductor.