No Arabic abstract
Recently, the two-dimensional (2D) materials have become potential candidates for various technological applications in spintronics and optoelectronics soon after the discovery of graphene from the mechanical exfoliation of graphite. In the present study, the structural, electronic, and phase stability of layered quasi-2D ZnSb compounds have been tuned using the first principle calculations based on density functional theory (DFT). We invoked the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) functional and the projected augmented wave (PAW) method during all the calculations. Based on our numerical results, the novel tetragonal phase of 2D-ZnSb is the most stable phase among the quasi-2D structures. We reported the pressure-induced phase transition between orthorhombic 3D-ZnSb to tetragonal 2D-ZnSb at 12.48 GPa/atom. The projected density of states indicates the strong p-d hybridization between Sb-5p and Zn-3d states confirming the nature of strong covalent bonding between them. We predicted the possibility of the monolayer in tetragonal 2D-ZnSb and orthorhombic 3D-ZnSb according to the exfoliation energy criterion. The electronic band structures suggest the metallic characteristics of all the quasi-2D structures. In addition, the monolayer of 3D-ZnSb has been predicted to be dynamically stable as manifested in phonon dispersion bands. Surprisingly, the semiconducting bandgap nature of orthorhombic 3D-ZnSb changes from indirect and narrow to direct and sizable while going from 3D bulk to 2D monolayer. Further, we estimated the value of work functions for the surface of t-ZnSb (quasi-2D) and o-ZnSb (3D) as 4.61 eV and 4.04 eV respectively. Such materials can find niche applications in next-generation electronic devices utilizing 2D heterostructures.
Structural, electronic, vibrational and dielectric properties of LaBGeO$_5$ with the stillwellite structure are determined based on textit{ab initio} density functional theory. The theoretically relaxed structure is found to agree well with the existing experimental data with a deviation of less than $0.2%$. Both the density of states and the electronic band structure are calculated, showing five distinct groups of valence bands. Furthermore, the Born effective charge, the dielectric permittivity tensors, and the vibrational frequencies at the center of the Brillouin zone are all obtained. Compared to existing model calculations, the vibrational frequencies are found in much better agreement with the published experimental infrared and Raman data, with absolute and relative rms values of 6.04 cm$^{-1}$, and $1.81%$, respectively. Consequently, numerical values for both the parallel and perpendicular components of the permittivity tensor are established as 3.55 and 3.71 (10.34 and 12.28), respectively, for the high-(low-)frequency limit.
In this work, we have presented a first principle simulation study on the electronic properties of MoS2/MX2/MoS2 (M=Mo or W; X=S or Se) trilayer heterostrcuture. We have investigated the effect of stacking configuration, bi-axial compressive and tensile strain on the electronic properties of the trilayer heterostructures. In our study, it is found that, under relaxed condition all the trilayer heterostructures at different stacking configurations show semiconducting nature. The nature of the bandgap however depends on the inserted TMDC monolayer between the top and bottom MoS2 layers and their stacking configurations. Like bilayer heterostructures, trilayer structures also show semiconducting to metal transition under the application of tensile strain. With increased tensile strain the conduction band minima shifts to K point in the brillouin zone and lowering of electron effective mass at conduction band minima is observed. The study on the projected density of states reveal that, the conduction band minima is mostly contributed by the MoS2 layers and states at the valance band maxima are contributed by the middle TMDC monolayer.
Based on the first-principles calculations, we have investigated the geometry, binding properties, density of states and band structures of the novel superconductor LaFe1-xCoxAsO and its parent compounds with the ZrCuSiAs structure. We demonstrate that La-O bond and TM-As (TM=Fe or Co) bond are both strongly covalent, while the LaO and TMAs layers have an almost ionic interaction through the Bader charge analysis. Partial substitution of iron with cobalt modify the Fermi level from a steep edge to a flat slope, which explains why in this system Co doping suppresses the spin density wave (SDW) transition.
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 electronic structures of CeRhSn and CeRuSn are self-consistently calculated within density functional theory using the local spin density approximation for exchange and correlation. In agreement with experimental findings, the analyses of the electronic structures and of the chemical bonding properties point to the absence of magnetization within the mixed valent Rh based system while a finite magnetic moment is observed for trivalent cerium within the Ru-based stannide, which contains both trivalent and intermediate valent Ce.