ترغب بنشر مسار تعليمي؟ اضغط هنا

Design of a multifunctional polar metal via first-principles high-throughput structure screening

81   0   0.0 ( 0 )
 نشر من قبل Yue-Wen Fang Dr.
 تاريخ النشر 2019
  مجال البحث فيزياء
والبحث باللغة English




اسأل ChatGPT حول البحث

Intrinsic polar metals are rare, especially in oxides, because free electrons screen electric fields in a metal and eliminate the internal dipoles that are needed to break inversion symmetry. Here we use first-principles high-throughput structure screening to predict a new polar metal in bulk and thin film forms. After screening more than 1000 different crystal structures, we find that ordered BiPbTi2O6 can crystallize in three polar and metallic structures, which can be transformed between via pressure or strain. In a heterostructure of layered BiPbTi2O6 and PbTiO3, multiple states with different relative orientations of BiPbTi2O6 polar displacements, and PbTiO3 polarization, can be stabilized. At room temperature, the interfacial coupling enables electric fields to first switch PbTiO3 polarization and subsequently drive 180{deg} change of BiPbTi2O6 polar displacements. At low temperatures, the heterostructure provides a tunable tunnelling barrier and might be used in multi-state memory devices.

قيم البحث

اقرأ أيضاً

Herein, we performed ab initio screening to identify the best doping of LiNiO2 to achieve improved cycle performance in lithium ion batteries. The interlayer interaction that dominates the c-axis contraction and overall performance was captured well by density functional theory using van der Waals exchange-correlation functionals. The screening indicated that Nb-doping is promising for improving cycle performance. To extract qualitative reasonings, we performed data analysis in a materials informatics manner to obtain a reasonable regression to reproduce the obtained results. LASSO analysis implied that the charge density between the layers in the discharged state is the dominant factor influencing cycle performance.
Great enthusiasm in single atom catalysts (SACs) for the N2 reduction reaction (NRR) has been aroused by the discovery of Metal (M)-Nx as a promising catalytic center. However,the performance of available SACs,including poor activity and selectivity, is far away from the industrial requirement because of the inappropriate adsorption behaviors of the catalytic centers. Through the first principles high throughput screening, we find that the rational construction of Fe-Fe dual atom centered site distributed on graphite carbon nitride (Fe2/gCN) compromises the ability to adsorb N2H and NH2, achieving the best NRR performance among 23 different transition metal (TM) centers. Our results show that Fe2/gCN can achieve a Faradic efficiency of 100% for NH3 production. Impressively, the limiting potential of Fe2/gCN is estimated as low as -0.13 V, which is hitherto the lowest value among the reported theoretical results. Multiple level descriptors (excess electrons on the adsorbed N2 and integrated crystal orbital Hamilton population) shed light on the origin of NRR activity from the view of energy, electronic structure, and basic characteristics. As a ubiquitous issue during electrocatalytic NRR, ammonia contamination originating from the substrate decomposition can be surmounted. Our predictions offer a new platform for electrocatalytic synthesis of NH3, contributing to further elucidate the structure-performance correlations.
Nano-materials, such as metal-organic frameworks, have been considered to capture CO$_2$. However, their application has been limited largely because they exhibit poor selectivity for flue gases and low capture capacity under low pressures. We perfor m a high-throughput screening for selective CO$_2$ capture from flue gases by using first principles thermodynamics. We find that elements with empty d orbitals selectively attract CO$_2$ from gaseous mixtures under low CO$_2$ pressures at 300 K and release it at ~450 K. CO$_2$ binding to elements involves hybridization of the metal d orbitals with the CO$_2$ $pi$ orbitals and CO$_2$-transition metal complexes were observed in experiments. This result allows us to perform high-throughput screening to discover novel promising CO$_2$ capture materials with empty d orbitals and predict their capture performance under various conditions. Moreover, these findings provide physical insights into selective CO$_2$ capture and open a new path to explore CO$_2$ capture materials.
The bulk photovoltaic effect is a long-known but poorly understood phenomenon. Recently, however, the multiferroic bismuth ferrite has been observed to produce strong photovoltaic response to visible light, suggesting that the effect has been underex ploited as well. Here we present three polar oxides in the LiNbO$_3$ structure that we predict to have band gaps in the 1-2 eV range and very high bulk photovoltaic response: PbNiO$_3$, Mg$_{1/2}$Zn$_{1/2}$PbO$_3$, and LiBiO$_3$. All three have band gaps determined by cations with $d^{10}s^0$ electronic configurations, leading to conduction bands composed of cation $s$-orbitals and O $p$-orbitals. This both dramatically lowers the band gap and increases the bulk photovoltaic response by as much as an order of magnitude over previous materials, demonstrating the potential for high-performing bulk photovoltaics.
Materials combining both a high refractive index and a wide band gap are of great interest for optoelectronic and sensor applications. However, these two properties are typically described by an inverse correlation with high refractive index appearin g in small gap materials and vice-versa. Here, we conduct a first-principles high-throughput study on more than 4000 semiconductors (with a special focus on oxides). Our data confirm the general inverse trend between refractive index and band gap but interesting outliers are also identified. The data are then analyzed through a simple model involving two main descriptors: the average optical gap and the effective frequency. The former can be determined directly from the electronic structure of the compounds, but the latter cannot. This calls for further analysis in order to obtain a predictive model. Nonetheless, it turns out that the negative effect of a large band gap on the refractive index can counterbalanced in two ways: (i) by limiting the difference between the direct band gap and the average optical gap which can be realized by a narrow distribution in energy of the optical transitions and (ii) by increasing the effective frequency which can be achieved through either a high number of transitions from the top of the valence band to the bottom of the conduction or a high average probability for these transitions. Focusing on oxides, we use our data to investigate how the chemistry influences this inverse relationship and rationalize why certain classes of materials would perform better. Our findings can be used to search for new compounds in many optical applications both in the linear and non-linear regime (waveguides, optical modulators, laser, frequency converter, etc.).
التعليقات
جاري جلب التعليقات جاري جلب التعليقات
سجل دخول لتتمكن من متابعة معايير البحث التي قمت باختيارها
mircosoft-partner

هل ترغب بارسال اشعارات عن اخر التحديثات في شمرا-اكاديميا