Effect of hydrogen on magnetic properties in MgO studied by first-principles calculations and experiments.

We investigated the effects of both intrinsic defects and hydrogen atom impurities on the magnetic properties of MgO samples. MgO in its pure defect-free state is known to be a nonmagnetic semiconductor. We employed density-functional theory and the Heyd-Scuseria-Ernzerhof (HSE) density functional. The calculated formation energy and total magnetic moment indicated that uncharged [Formula: see text] and singly charged [Formula: see text] magnesium vacancies are more stable than oxygen vacancies (VO) under O-rich growth conditions and introduce a magnetic moment to MgO. The calculated density of states (DOS) results demonstrated that magnetic moments of VMg result from spin polarization of an unpaired electron of the partially occupied valence band, which is dominated by O 2p orbitals. Based on our calculations, VMg is the origin of magnetism and ferromagnetism in MgO. In contrast, the magnetic moment of the magnetic VMg-MgO crystal is suppressed by hydrogen (H) atoms, and unpaired electrons are donated to the unpaired electronic states of VMg when the defect complex Hi-VMg is formed. This suggests that H causes a reduction in magnetization of the ferromagnetic MgO. We then performed experimental studies to verify the DFT predictions by subjecting the MgO sample to a thermal treatment that creates Mg vacancies in the structure and intentionally doping the MgO sample with hydrogen atoms. We found good agreement between the DFT results and the experimental data. Our findings suggest that the ferromagnetism and diamagnetism of MgO can be controlled by heat treatment and hydrogen doping, which may find applications in magnetic sensing and switching under different environmental conditions.

Electronic and thermodynamic properties of native point defects in V2O5: a first-principles study.

The formation of native point defects in semiconductors and their behaviors play a crucial role in material properties. Although the native defects of V2O5 include vacancies, self-interstitials, and antisites, only oxygen vacancies have been extensively explored. In this work, we carried out first-principles calculations to systematically study the properties of possible native defects in V2O5. The electronic structure and the formation energy of each defect were calculated using the DFT+U method. Defect concentrations were estimated using a statistical model with a constraint of charge neutrality. We found that the vanadyl vacancy is a shallow acceptor that could supply holes to the system. However, the intrinsic p-type doping in V2O5 hardly occurred because the vanadyl vacancy could be readily compensated by the more stable donor, i.e., the oxygen vacancy and oxygen interstitial, instead of holes. The oxygen vacancy is the most dominant defect under oxygen-deficient conditions. However, under extreme O-rich conditions, a deep donor of oxygen interstitial becomes the major defect species. The dominant oxygen vacancy under synthesized conditions plays an important role in determining the electronic conductivity of V2O5. It induces the formation of compensating electron polarons. The polarons are trapped at V centers close to the vacancy site with the effective escaping barriers of around 0.6 eV. Such barriers are higher than that of the isolated polaron hopping (0.2 eV). The estimated polaron mobilities obtained from kinetic Monte Carlo simulations confirmed that oxygen vacancies act as polaron-trapping sites, which diminishes the polaron mobility by 4 orders of magnitude. Nevertheless, when the sample is synthesized at elevated temperatures, a number of thermally activated polarons in samples are quite high due to the high concentrations of oxygen vacancies. These polarons can contribute as charge carriers of intrinsic n-type semiconducting V2O5.

Effects of the van der Waals Interactions on Structural and Electronic Properties of CH3NH3(Pb,Sn)(I,Br,Cl)3 Halide Perovskites.

In hybrid perovskite materials like CH3NH3PbI3, methylammonium (MA) lead iodide (MAPI), the orientation of the MA+ cations and their ordering can significantly affect the structure of the inorganic framework. Although the states near the band edges are known to be primarily derived from the Pb and halogen orbitals rather than from the organic ion, the latter may have an indirect effect through their impact on the structural relaxation. In this work, we investigate both the structural relaxation effects of the inorganic framework in response to the MA+ orientation and their impact on the electronic structure near the band edges. Calculations are performed for MA(Pb,Sn)X 3 with (X = I, Br, and Cl) materials for both Pb- and Sn-based compounds. The work focuses on the high-temperature α-phase, which is nominally cubic if averaged over all possible MA orientations and in which no alternating rotations of the octahedral occur, so that the unit cell is the smallest possible. The effects of van der Waals (vdW) corrections to density functional theory on the structural relaxation are investigated. Our results reveal that the vdW interactions between the MA+ cation and the inorganic framework can strongly affect the optimized orientation and position of the molecule and the resulting distortion of the inorganic framework. Consequently, it also affects the electronic properties of the materials and specifically can change the band structure from direct to indirect band gaps. The robustness of this result is studied by comparing hybrid functional calculations and quasiparticle self-consistent GW calculations as well as spin-orbit coupling.

SUT-NANOTEC-SLRI beamline for X-ray absorption spectroscopy.

The SUT-NANOTEC-SLRI beamline was constructed in 2012 as the flagship of the SUT-NANOTEC-SLRI Joint Research Facility for Synchrotron Utilization, co-established by Suranaree University of Technology (SUT), National Nanotechnology Center (NANOTEC) and Synchrotron Light Research Institute (SLRI). It is an intermediate-energy X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) beamline at SLRI. The beamline delivers an unfocused monochromatic X-ray beam of tunable photon energy (1.25-10 keV). The maximum normal incident beam size is 13 mm (width) × 1 mm (height) with a photon flux of 3 × 108 to 2 × 1010 photons s-1 (100 mA)-1 varying across photon energies. Details of the beamline and XAS instrumentation are described. To demonstrate the beamline performance, K-edge XANES spectra of MgO, Al2O3, S8, FeS, FeSO4, Cu, Cu2O and CuO, and EXAFS spectra of Cu and CuO are presented.

Reduced overpotentials for electrocatalytic water splitting over Fe- and Ni-modified BaTiO3.

Water electrolysis is a key technology for the replacement of fossil fuels by environmentally friendly alternatives, but state-of-the-art water oxidation catalysts rely on rare elements such as Pt groups and other noble metals. In this article, we employ first-principles calculations to explore the potential of modified barium titanate (BaTiO3), an inexpensive perovskite oxide that can be synthesized from earth-abundant precursors, for the design of efficient water oxidation electrocatalysts. Our calculations identify Fe and Ni doping as a means to improve the electrical conductivity and to reduce the overpotential required for water oxidation over BaTiO3. Based on computed Pourbaix diagrams and pH/potential-dependent surface phase diagrams, we further show that BaTiO3 is stable under reaction conditions and is not sensitive with respect to poisoning by reaction intermediates and hydrogen adsorption. This proof of concept demonstrates that even minor compositional modifications of existing materials may greatly improve their catalytic activity, a fact that is often neglected when larger composition spaces are screened.

Structure of the hydrated Ca(2+) and Cl(-): Combined X-ray absorption measurements and QM/MM MD simulations study.

A combination of X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) measurements and quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) molecular dynamics (MD) simulations has been applied to elucidate detailed information on the hydration structures of Ca(2+) and Cl(-). The XAS spectra (extended X-ray absorption fine structure, EXAFS, and X-ray absorption near-edge structure, XANES) measured from aqueous CaCl(2) solution were analyzed and compared to those generated from snapshots of QM/MM MD simulations of Ca(2+) and Cl(-) in water. With regard to this scheme, the simulated QM/MM-EXAFS and QM/MM-XANES spectra, which correspond to the local structure and geometrical arrangement of the hydrated Ca(2+) and Cl(-) at molecular level show good agreement with the experimentally observed EXAFS and XANES spectra. From the analyses of the simulated QM/MM-EXAFS spectra, the hydration numbers for Ca(2+) and Cl(-) were found to be 7.1 +/- 0.7 and 5.1 +/- 1.3, respectively, compared to the corresponding values of 6.9 +/- 0.7 and 6.0 +/- 1.7 derived from the measured EXAFS data. In particular for XANES results, it is found that ensemble averages derived from the QM/MM MD simulations can provide reliable QM/MM-XANES spectra, which are strongly related to the shape of the experimental XANES spectra. Since there is no direct way to convert the measured XANES spectrum into details relating to geometrical arrangement of the hydrated ions, it is demonstrated that such a combined technique of XAS experiments and QM/MM MD simulations is well-suited for the structural verification of aqueous ionic solutions.

Novel phase transformation in ZnO nanowires under tensile loading.

We predict a previously unknown phase transformation from wurtzite to a graphitelike (P6(3)/mmc) hexagonal structure in [0110]-oriented ZnO nanowires under uniaxial tensile loading. Molecular dynamics simulations and first principles calculations show that this structure corresponds to a distinct minimum on the enthalpy surfaces of ZnO for such loading conditions. This transformation is reversible with a low level of hysteretic dissipation of 0.16 J/m3 and, along with elastic stretching, endows the nanowires with the ability to recover pseudoelastic strains up to 15%.

Hydrogen-mediated nitrogen clustering in dilute III-V nitrides.

First-principles calculation reveals multi-N clusters to be the ground states for hydrogenated N in dilute III-V nitrides. While hydrogenation of a single N, forming H2*(N), can relax the large strain induced by the size-mismatched N, formation of the clusters will relax the strain even more effectively. This suppresses the formation of H2*(N), the existence of which has recently been debated. More importantly, postgrowth dehydrogenation of the N-H clusters provides an explanation to the observed metastable bare N clusters in GaAsN grown by gas-source molecular beam epitaxy or metal-organic chemical vapor deposition.

Evidence for native-defect donors in n-type ZnO.

Recent theory has found that native defects such as the O vacancy V(O) and Zn interstitial Zn(I) have high formation energies in n-type ZnO and, thus, are not important donors, especially in comparison to impurities such as H. In contrast, we use both theory and experiment to show that, under N ambient, the complex Zn(I)-N(O) is a stronger candidate than H or any other known impurity for a 30 meV donor commonly found in bulk ZnO grown from the vapor phase. Since the Zn vacancy is also the dominant acceptor in such material, we must conclude that native defects are important donors and acceptors in ZnO.

Doping by large-size-mismatched impurities: the microscopic origin of arsenic- or antimony-doped p-type zinc oxide.

Based on first-principles calculations, a model for large-size-mismatched group-V dopants in ZnO is proposed. The dopants do not occupy the O sites as is widely perceived, but rather the Zn sites: each forms a complex with two spontaneously induced Zn vacancies in a process that involves fivefold As coordination. Moreover, an As(Zn)-2V(Zn) complex may have lower formation energy than any of the parent defects. Our model agrees with the recent observations that both As and Sb have low acceptor-ionization energies and that to obtain p-type ZnO requires O-rich growth or annealing conditions.