No Arabic abstract
By means of the first-principle calculations, we have investigated electronic, magnetic properties and correlation effects for the newly discovered layered oxyselenide Na2Fe2Se2O. Our results reveal that the electron correlations in the Fe 3d bands promote a transition of Na2Fe2Se2O from magnetic metallic or half-metallic states to the antiferromagnetic Mott-insulating state. In addition, the bonding picture in Na2Fe2Se2O is described as an anisotropic mixture of ionic and covalent contributions.
The electronic and phonon transport properties of quaternary tetradymite BiSbSeTe2 are investigated using first-principles approach and Boltzmann transport theory. Unlike the binary counterpart Bi2Te3, we obtain a pair of Rashba splitting bands induced by the absence of inversion center. Such unique characteristic could lead to a large Seebeck coefficient even at relatively higher carrier concentration. Besides, we find an ultralow lattice thermal conductivity of BiSbSeTe2, especially along the interlayer direction, which can be traced to the extremely small phonon relaxation time mainly induced by the mixed covalent bonds. As a consequence, a considerably large ZT value of ~2.0 can be obtained at 500 K, indicating that the unique lattice structure of BiSbSeTe2 caused by isoelectronic substitution could be an advantage to achieving high thermoelectric performance.
Using first-principles calculations within the generalized gradient approximation, we predicted the lattice parameters, elastic constants, vibrational properties, and electronic structure of cementite (Fe3C). Its nine single-crystal elastic constants were obtained by computing total energies or stresses as a function of applied strain. Furthermore, six of them were determined from the initial slopes of the calculated longitudinal and transverse acoustic phonon branches along the [100], [010] and [001] directions. The three methods agree well with each other, the calculated polycrystalline elastic moduli are also in good overall agreement with experiments. Our calculations indicate that Fe3C is mechanically stable. The experimentally observed high elastic anisotropy of Fe3C is also confirmed by our study. Based on electronic density of states and charge density distribution, the chemical bonding in Fe3C was analyzed and was found to exhibit a complex mixture of metallic, covalent, and ionic characters.
By using first-principles calculations, we investigated the effects of graphene/boron nitride (BN) encapsulation, surface functionalization by metallic elements (K, Al, Mg and typical transition metals) and molecules (tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) and tetracyanoethylene (TCNE)) on the electronic properties of layered indium selenide (InSe). It was found that an opposite trend of charge transfer is possible for graphene (donor) and BN (acceptor), which is dramatically different from phosphorene where both graphene and BN play the same role (donor). For InSe/BN heterostructure, a change of the interlayer distance due to an out-of-plane compression can effectively modulate the band gap. Strong acceptor abilities to InSe were found for the TCNE and TCNQ molecules. For K, Al and Mg-doped monolayer InSe, the charge transfer from K and Al atoms to the InSe surface was observed, causing an n-type conduction of InSe, while p-type conduction of InSe observed in case of the Mg-doping. The atomically thin structure of InSe enables the possible observation and utilization of the dopant-induced vertical electric field across the interface. A proper adoption of the n- or p-type dopants allows for the modulation of the work function, the Fermi level pinning, the band bending, and the photo-adsorbing efficiency near the InSe surface/interface. Investigation on the adsorption of transition metal atoms on InSe showed that Ti-, V-, Cr-, Mn-, Co-adsorbed InSe are spin-polarized, while Ni-, Cu-, Pd-, Ag- and Au-adsorbed InSe are non-spin-polarized. Our results shed lights on the possible ways to protect InSe structure and modulate its electronic properties for nanoelectronics and electrochemical device applications.
Using the ab initio FLAPW-GGA method we examine the electronic and magnetic properties of nitrogen-doped non-magnetic sesquioxide La2O3 emphasizing the role of doping sites in the occurrence of d0-magnetism. We predict the magnetization of La2O3 induced by nitrogen impurity in both octahedral and tetrahedral sites of the oxygen sublattice. The most interesting results are that (i) the total magnetic moments (about 1 {mu}B per supercells) are independent of the doping site, whereas (ii) the electronic spectra of these systems differ drastically: La2O3:N with six-fold coordinated nitrogen behaves as a narrow-band-gap magnetic semiconductor, whereas with four-fold coordinated nitrogen is predicted to be a magnetic half-metal. This effect is explained taking into account the differences in N-2pz versus N-2px,y orbital splitting for various doping sites. Thus, the type of the doping site is one of the essential factors for designing of new d0-magnetic materials with promising properties.
The strongly constrained and appropriately normed (SCAN) semi-local functional for exchange-correlation is deployed to study the ground-state properties of ternary Heusler alloys transforming martensitically. The calculations are performed for ferromagnetic, ferrimagnetic, and antiferromagnetic phases. Comparisons between SCAN and generalized gradient approximation (GGA) are discussed. We find that SCAN yields smaller lattice parameters and higher magnetic moments compared to the GGA corresponding values for both austenite and martensite phases. Furthermore, in the case of ferromagnetic and non-magnetic Heusler compounds, GGA and SCAN display similar trends in the total energy as a function of lattice constant and tetragonal ratio. However, for some ferrimagnetic Mn-rich Heusler compounds, different magnetic ground states are found within GGA and SCAN.