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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 811 records · Page 45
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2015

Laser Spectroscopic and Theoretical Studies of the Structures and Encapsulation Motifs of Functional Molecules

Extensive laser spectroscopic and theoretical studies have been recently carried out with the aim to reveal the structure and dynamics of encapsulation complexes in the gas phase. The characteristics of the encapsulation complexes are governed by the fact that (i) most of the host molecules are flexible and (ii) the complexes form high dimensional structures by using weak non-covalent interactions. These characteristics result in the possibility of the coexistence of many conformers in close energetic proximity. The combination of supersonic jet/laser spectroscopy and high level quantum chemical calculations is essential in tackling these challenging problems. In this report we describe our recent studies on the structures and dynamics of the encapsulation complexes formed by calix[4]arene (C4A), dibenzo-18-crown-6-ether (DB18C6), and benzo-18-crown-6-ether (B18C6) "hosts" interacting with N2, acetylene, water, and ammonia "guest" molecules. The gaseous host-guest complexes are generated under jet-cooled conditions. We apply various laser spectroscopic methods to obtain the conformer- and isomer-specified electronic and IR spectra. The experimental results are complemented with quantum chemical calculations ranging from density functional theory to high level first principles calculations at the MP2 and CCSD(T) levels of theory. We discuss the possible conformations of the bare host molecules, the structural changes they undergo upon complexation, and the key interactions that are responsible in stabilizing the specific complexes

electronic structure calculations↗
DOE OSTI2018

Quantum Calculations on Plant Cell Wall Component Interactions

In this paper, density functional theory calculations were performed to assess the relative interaction energies of plant cell wall components: cellulose, xylan, lignin and pectin. Monomeric and tetramer linear molecules were allowed to interact in four different configurations for each pair of compounds. The M0 5 -2X exchange-correlation functional which implicitly accounts for short- and mid-range dispersion was compared against MP2 and RI-MP2 to assess the reliability of the former for modeling van der Waals forces between these PCW components. Solvation effects were examined by modeling the interactions in the gas phase, in explicit H 2 O, and in polarized continuum models (PCM) of solvation. PCMs were used to represent water, methanol, and chloroform. The results predict the relative ranges of each type of interaction and when specific configurations will be strongly preferred. Finally, structures and energies are useful as a basis for testing classical force fields and as guidance for coarse-grained models of PCWs.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

Identification of Second Shell Coordination in Transition Metal Species Using Theoretical XANES: Example of Ti–O–(C, Si, Ge) Complexes

X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) is a common technique for elucidating oxidation state and first shell coordination geometry in transition metal complexes, among many other materials. However, the structural information obtained from XANES is often limited to the first coordination sphere. In this study, we show how XANES can be used to differentiate between C, Si, and Ge in the second coordination shell of Ti–O–(C, Si, Ge) molecular complexes based on differences in their Ti K-edge XANES spectra. Experimental spectra were compared with theoretical spectra calculated using density functional theory structural optimization and ab initio XANES calculations. The unique features for second shell C, Si, and Ge present in the Ti K pre-edge XANES are attributed to the interaction between the Ti center and the O–X (X = C, Si, or Ge) antibonding orbitals.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

Ultrafast x-ray pump x-ray probe transient absorption spectroscopy: A computational study and proposed experiment probing core-valence electronic correlations in solvated complexes

Femtosecond X-ray pump X-ray probe experiments are currently possible at free electron lasers such as the linac coherent light source (LCLS), which opens new opportunities for studying solvated transition metal-ligand complexes. In order to make the most effective use of these kinds of experiments, it is necessary to determine which chemical properties an X-ray pump pulse will measure. In this paper, we have combined electron cascade calculations and excited-state time-dependent density functional theory calculations to predict the initial state prepared by an X-ray pump and the subsequent X-ray probe spectra at the Fe K-edge in the solvated model transition metal complex, K 4 Fe II (CN) 6 . We find several key spectral features that report on the ligand-field splitting, solvent-solute interactions, and the 3p and 3d electron interactions. We then show how these features could be measured in an experiment.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2025

Structural transition and possible pressure-induced superconductivity in a suboxide La 5 Pb 3 O

Here, in this study, we report a structural phase transition and its interplay with superconductivity in the suboxide La 5⁢ Pb 3 ⁢O. Upon cooling through 𝑇 𝑡 = 225K, La 5⁢ Pb 3⁢ O transforms from a high-temperature 𝐼⁢4/mcm to a low-temperature 𝑃⁢4/ncc structure in which La-Pb dimerization along the 𝑐 axis occurs. This transition is accompanied by anomalies in the temperature dependence of electrical resistivity and specific heat. High-pressure electrical transport measurements reveal that hydrostatic pressure suppresses the structural transition and possibly induces superconductivity with a maximum superconducting temperature of 10 K. Density functional theory calculations show minimal changes in the electronic density of states and no gap opening at 𝐸 𝐹 across 𝑇 𝑡 , suggesting that the transition is driven by bonding effects rather than Fermi surface instability. These findings establish La 5⁢ Pb 3 ⁢O as a promising platform for exploring the interplay between weak structural transitions and superconductivity.

Yan, Jiaqiang [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL↗
DOE OSTI2023

Phase Boundaries, Isotope Effect and Superconductivity of Lithium Under Hydrostatic Conditions

We present theoretical and experimental studies of superconductivity and low temperature structural phase boundaries in lithium. We mapped the structural phase diagram of 6Li and 7Li under hydrostatic conditions between 5 – 55 GPa and within the temperature range of 15 – 75 K, observing the FCC → hR1 → cI16 phase transitions. 6Li and 7Li show some differences at the structural boundaries, with a potential shift of the phase boundaries of 6Li to lower pressures. Density functional theory calculations and topological analysis of the electron density elucidates the superconducting properties and interatomic interactions within these phases of lithium.

Deemyad, Shanti↗
DOE OSTI2015

Structural, electronic, superconducting and mechanical properties of ReC and TcC

The structural, electronic, superconducting and mechanical properties of ReC and TcC are investigated using density functional theory calculations. The lattice constants, bulk modulus, and the density of states are obtained. The calculated lattice parameters are in good agreement with the available results. The density of states reveals that ReC and TcC exhibit metallic behavior at ambient condition. A pressure-induced structural phase transition is observed in both materials.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2020

Localization in the SCAN meta-generalized gradient approximation functional leading to broken symmetry ground states for graphene and benzene

Density functional theory calculations play a central role in understanding chemical and solid-state systems. Progress depends on density functionals that accurately reproduce both energies, for thermochemistry, and properly describe ground states and other properties that are of interest. The Cr dimer, benzene and graphene are especially important benchmark systems for quantum chemistry and condensed matter physics. The Strongly Constrained and Appropriately Normed (SCAN) functional, which is an advanced meta-generalized gradient approximation functional that significantly improves molecular energies is shown to perform poorly for the Cr dimer. This is connected with its poor performance for itinerant solid-state magnets and is a consequence of over localization of electrons, thus illustrating an analogy between the Cr dimer and itinerant magnets. The Cr dimer is a notoriously difficult system for density functionals. However, we additionally find that SCAN predicts an incorrect symmetry broken ground state for 2D graphene and for the benzene molecule, which is surprising considering that ground states of these are known to be well described even by the simplest local density approximation. We show that SCAN overly favors localized spin polarized states, which is a serious deficiency of this approach. Thus, the challenge of finding density functionals that accurately treat both localized and delocalized electronic systems remains.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2022

Zero-Field Splitting Calculations by Multiconfiguration Pair-Density Functional Theory

Zero-field splitting (ZFS) is a fundamental molecular property that is especially relevant for single-molecule magnets (SMMs), electron paramagnetic resonance spectra, and quantum computing. Developing a method that can accurately predict ZFS parameters can be very powerful for designing new SMMs. One of the challenges is to include external correlation in an inherently multiconfigurational open-shell species for the accurate prediction of magnetic properties. Previously available methods depend on expensive multireference perturbation theory calculations to include external correlation. In this paper, we present spin-orbit-inclusive multiconfiguration and multistate pair-density functional theory (MC-PDFT) calculations of ZFSs; these calculations have a cost comparable to complete-active-space self-consistent field (CASSCF) theory, but they include correlation external to the active space. We found that combining a multistate formulation of MC-PDFT, namely, compressed-state multistate pair-density functional theory, with orbitals optimized by weighted-state-averaged CASSCF, yields reasonably accurate ZFS results

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

Carbon complexes in highly C-doped GaN

We investigate the properties of heavily C-doped GaN grown by hydride vapor phase epitaxy using both optical experiments and hybrid density functional theory calculations. Previous work has established that carbon acceptors (C N ) give rise to a yellow luminescence band near 2.2 eV along with a blue luminescence band near 2.9 eV. Photoluminescence measurements show the yellow band shifting as a function of carbon concentration, suggesting a change in the behavior of carbon species as carbon content increases. With hybrid density functional theory we calculate the electrical and optical behavior of carbon centers containing multiple carbon impurities, which may arise in heavily doped material. We compare the behavior of these complexes to the isolated centers, and find that the dicarbon donor-acceptor (C Ga –C N ) complex is a candidate to explain the shift in the yellow luminescence peak. Tricarbon complexes have high formation energies and modest binding energies, and also give rise to optical transitions that are inconsistent with the observed spectra. We also identify the split dicarbon interstitial on the gallium site as a low-energy species with a large binding energy that may act to compensate carbon acceptors. Here, local vibrational modes are calculated for carbon impurity centers, and we compare these results to recent experiments. Dicarbon and tricarbon complexes involving C Ga and C N exhibit modes that are only slightly higher than the isolated species, while carbon interstitials and related complexes give rise to vibrational modes much higher than C Ga and C N .

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Combining Pseudopotential and All Electron Density Functional Theory for the Efficient Calculation of Core Spectra Using a Multiresolution Approach

Broadly speaking, the calculation of core spectra such as electron energy loss spectra (EELS) at the level of density functional theory (DFT) usually relies on one of two approaches: conceptually more complex but computationally efficient projector augmented wave based approaches or more straightforward but computationally more intensive all electron (AE) based approaches. In this work we present an alternative method, which aims to find a middle ground between the two. Specifically, we have implemented an approach in the multiwavelet MADNESS molecular DFT code that permits a combination of atoms treated at the AE and pseudopotential (PSP) level. Atoms for which one wishes to calculate the core edges are thus treated at an AE level, while the remainder can be treated at the PSP level. This is made possible thanks to the multiresolution approach of MADNESS, which permits accurate and efficient calculations at both the AE and PSP level. Through examples of a small molecule and a carbon nanotube, this study demonstrates the potential applications of our approach.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

Davis Computational Spectroscopy Workflow—From Structure to Spectra

Here, we describe an automated workflow that connects a series of atomic simulation tools to investigate the relationship between atomic structure, lattice dynamics, materials properties, and inelastic neutron scattering (INS) spectra. Starting from the atomic simulation environment (ASE) as an interface, we demonstrate the use of a selection of calculators, including density functional theory (DFT) and density functional tight binding (DFTB), to optimize the structures and calculate interatomic force constants. We present the use of our workflow to compute the phonon frequencies and eigenvectors, which are required to accurately simulate the INS spectra in crystalline solids like diamond and graphite as well as molecular solids like rubrene. We have also implemented a machine-learning force field based on Chebyshev polynomials called the Chebyshev interaction model for efficient simulation (ChIMES) to improve the accuracy of the DFTB simulations. We then explore the transferability of our DFTB/ChIMES models by comparing simulations derived from different training sets. We show that DFTB/ChIMES demonstrates ~100× reduction in computational expense while retaining most of the accuracy of DFT as well as yielding high accuracy for different materials outside of our training sets. The DFTB/ChIMES method within the workflow expands the possibilities to use simulations to accurately predict materials properties of increasingly complex structures that would be unfeasible with ab initio methods.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2014

Ab-initio calculations of electronic, transport, and structural properties of boron phosphide

We present results from ab-initio, self-consistent density functional theory calculations of electronic and related properties of zinc blende boron phosphide (zb-BP). We employed a local density approximation potential and implemented the linear combination of atomic orbitals formalism. This technique follows the Bagayoko, Zhao, and Williams method, as enhanced by the work of Ekuma and Franklin. The results include electronic energy bands, densities of states, and effective masses. The calculated band gap of 2.02 eV, for the room temperature lattice constant of a=4.5383 Å, is in excellent agreement with the experimental value of 2.02±0.05 eV. Our result for the bulk modulus, 155.7 GPa, agrees with experiment (152–155 GPa). Our predictions for the equilibrium lattice constant and the corresponding band gap, for very low temperatures, are 4.5269 Å and 2.01 eV, respectively.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2018

Two-Level Chebyshev Filter Based Complementary Subspace Method: Pushing the Envelope of Large-Scale Electronic Structure Calculations

We describe here a novel iterative strategy for Kohn–Sham density functional theory calculations aimed at large systems (>1,000 electrons), applicable to metals and insulators alike. In lieu of explicit diagonalization of the Kohn–Sham Hamiltonian on every self-consistent field (SCF) iteration, we employ a two-level Chebyshev polynomial filter based complementary subspace strategy to (1) compute a set of vectors that span the occupied subspace of the Hamiltonian; (2) reduce subspace diagonalization to just partially occupied states; and (3) obtain those states in an efficient, scalable manner via an inner Chebyshev filter iteration. By reducing the necessary computation to just partially occupied states and obtaining these through an inner Chebyshev iteration, our approach reduces the cost of large metallic calculations significantly, while eliminating subspace diagonalization for insulating systems altogether. We describe the implementation of the method within the framework of the discontinuous Galerkin (DG) electronic structure method and show that this results in a computational scheme that can effectively tackle bulk and nano systems containing tens of thousands of electrons, with chemical accuracy, within a few minutes or less of wall clock time per SCF iteration on large-scale computing platforms. We anticipate that our method will be instrumental in pushing the envelope of large-scale ab initio molecular dynamics. As a demonstration of this, we simulate a bulk silicon system containing 8,000 atoms at finite temperature, and obtain an average SCF step wall time of 51 s on 34,560 processors; thus allowing us to carry out 1.0 ps of ab initio molecular dynamics in approximately 28 h (of wall time).

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

First-principles studies of the structural, electronic, and optical properties of a novel thorium compound Rb{sub 2}Th{sub 7}Se{sub 15}

The structural, electronic, and optical properties of a recently synthesized thorium compound Rb{sub 2}Th{sub 7}Se{sub 15} have been calculated in the density functional theory framework for the first time. The calculated direct band gap was 1.471 eV (generalized gradient approximation) and 1.171 eV (local density approximation), with both results being close to the experimental result of 1.83 eV. High covalency/iconicity of the Th–Se/Rb–Se bonds was demonstrated by calculating effective Mulliken charges of all ions. The polarized calculations of the complex dielectric function are presented; dependence of the calculated index of refraction was fitted to the Sellmeyer equation in the wavelength range from 500 to 2500 nm. - Graphical abstract: Calculated band structure of Rb{sub 2}Th{sub 7}Se{sub 15}. - Highlights: • The first theoretical analysis of the Rb{sub 2}Th{sub 7}Se{sub 15} properties is reported. • Structural, electronic and optical properties of Rb{sub 2}Th{sub 7}Se{sub 15} were calculated. • An indirect character of Rb{sub 2}Th{sub 7}Se{sub 15} band gap was confirmed. • Dependence of the refractive index on the wavelength was calculated.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2018

Quantitative Attachment of Bimetal Combinations of Transition-Metal Ions to the Surface of TiO 2 Nanorods

Here we report the sequential, quantitative loading of transition-metal ions (Cr 3+ , Mn 2+ , Fe 2+ , Co 2+ , Ni 2+ , and Cu 2+ ) onto the surface of rod-shaped anatase TiO 2 nanocrystals in bimetallic combinations ( 6 C 2 = 15) to form M,M'-TiO 2 nanocrystals. The materials were characterized with transmission electron microscopy (TEM), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), elemental analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and UV–visible spectroscopy. TEM and XRD data indicate that the sequential adsorption of metal ions occurs with the retention of the phase and morphology of the nanocrystal. Atomistic models of the M,M'-TiO 2 nanocrystals were optimized with density functional theory calculations. Calculated UV–visible absorption spectra and partial charge density maps of the donor and acceptor states for the electronic transitions indicate the importance of metal-to-metal charge transfer (MMCT) processes.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗