We investigate in-gap states emerging when a single $3d$ transition metal impurity is embedded in topological insulators (Bi$_2$Te$_3$ and Bi$_2$Se$_3$). We use a combined approach relying on first-principles calculations and an Anderson impurity model. By computing the local density of states of Cr, Mn, Fe and Co embedded not only in surfaces of Bi$_2$Te$_3$ and of Bi$_2$Se$_3$ but also in their bulk phases, we demonstrate that in-gap states originate from the hybridization of the electronic states of the impurity with bulk bands and not with the topological surface states as it is usually assumed. This finding is analyzed using a simplified Anderson impurity model. These observations are in contradiction with the prevailing models used to investigate the magnetic doping of topological insulators [R. R. Biswas et al. PRB 81, 233405 (2010), A. M. Black-Schafer et al. PRB 91, 201411 (2015)], which attribute the origin of the in-gap states to the hybridization with the topological surface states.
We have performed the numerical modeling of Ge(111)-(2x1) surface electronic properties in vicinity of P donor impurity atom located near the surface. We have found a notable increase of surface $LDOS$ around surface dopant near the bottom of empty surface states band $π^*$, which we called split state due to its limited spatial extent and energetic position inside the band gap. We show, that despite of well established bulk donor impurity energy level position at the very bottom of conduction band, surface donor impurity on Ge(111)-(2x1) surface might produce energy level below Fermi energy, …
We present the ab initio results of the structural and magnetic properties of the Pd host matrix implanted with Fe solute atoms at various concentrations. By means of density functional theory we confirm that iron impurities are able to initialize significant magnetization of the Pd atoms, when the impurity consentation exceeds 3 at.%. Besides, we demonstrate that the imposed magnetization depends on impurity positions in the host matrix, in particular, there is a maximum of magnetization for a uniform distribution of the iron impurity.
Density functional theory was applied to study influence of the isolated impurity located on the regular site of the alpha-Fe crystal on the charge and spin density (hyperfine interactions) on the iron nucleus. Calculations were performed by using both pseudopotential and the full potential methods. The scalar relativistic approximation was applied. Perturbations of the charge and spin density on iron were calculated for all d impurities soluble in iron and additionally for Ga impurity. It was found that impurities have measurable effect on the iron charge and spin density up to the second or …
Ab initio Perturbed Ion cluster-in-the-lattice calculations of the impurity centers NaI:Tl+ and CsI:Tl+ are pressented. We study several active clusters of increasing complexity and show that the lattice relaxation around the Tl+ impurity implies the concerted movement of several shells of neighbors. The results also reveal the importance of considering a set of ions that can respond to the geometrical displacements of the inner shells by adapting selfconsistently their wave functions. Comparison with other calculations involving comparatively small active clusters serves to assert the signifi…
Effect of 3d Transition Metal Doping (Mn, Fe, Co, Ni) on the Electronic and Magnetic Properties of Pd Alloys at Low Impurity Concentrations: An Ab initio Study
Using the first-principles density-functional approach, magnetic properties of Mn-, Fe-, Co-, and Ni-doped rutile TiO2 were investigated for two different impurity concentrations (25% and 6.25%). Calculations were performed with the Full-Potential Linearized-Augmented Plane Waves (FLAPW) method, assuming that the magnetic impurities substitutionally replace the Ti ions. Our results show that the systems (with the exception of Ni-doped TiO2) are ferromagnetic. We also found that polarization mainly occurs at the impurity sites, and the magnetic moments of the impurities are independent of the i…
We discuss the binding energy E_b of impurities in semiconductors within density functional theory (DFT) and the GW approximation, focusing on donors in nanowires as an example. We show that DFT succeeds in the calculation of E_b from the Kohn-Sham (KS) hamiltonian of the ionized impurity, but fails in the calculation of E_b from the KS hamiltonian of the neutral impurity, as it misses most of the interaction of the bound electron with the surface polarization charges of the donor. We trace this deficiency back to the lack of screened exchange in the present functionals.
The incorporation of oxygen atoms has been simulated into either nitrogen or uranium vacancy at the UN(001) surface, sub-surface or central layers. For calculations on the corresponding slab models both the relativistic pseudopotentials and the method of projector augmented-waves (PAW) as implemented in the VASP computer code have been used. The energies of O atom incorporation and solution within the defective UN surface have been calculated and discussed. For different configurations of oxygen ions at vacancies within the UN(001) slab, the calculated density of states and electronic charge r…
Considering the interband correlation, we present a generalized multiple-scattering approach of Green's function to investigate the effects of electron-impurity scattering on the density of states in silicene. The reduction of energy gaps in the case of relatively high chemical potential and the transformation of split-off impurity bands into band tails for low chemical potential are found. The dependency of optical conductivity on the impurity concentration is also discussed for frequency within the terahertz regime.
We present a new technique which allows the fully {\em ab initio} calculation of the chemical potential of a substitutional impurity in a high-temperature crystal, including harmonic and anharmonic lattice vibrations. The technique uses the combination of thermodynamic integration and reference models developed recently for the {\em ab initio} calculation of the free energy of liquids and anharmonic solids. We apply the technique to the case of the substitutional oxygen impurity in h.c.p. iron under Earth's core conditions, which earlier static {\em ab initio} calculations indicated to be ther…
A study based on density functional theory calculations was performed for the three charge states of interstitial hydrogen in Yttria. The present calculations were carried out by employing the GGA-PBE and the HSE06 exchange-correlation functional. It is observed that the ground state H$^0$ and H$^-$ configurations are similar in behaviour; these prefer to relax in the O vacant site, with limited structural relaxation. For the neutral and the negative charged systems more two different geometrical configurations occur with higher energies, which evidence the existence of metastable sites of H i…
The ever increasing availability of supercomputing resources led computer-based materials science into a new era of high-throughput calculations. Recently, Pizzi et al. [Comp. Mat. Sci. 111, 218 (2016)] introduced the AiiDA framework that provides a way to automate calculations while allowing to store the full provenance of complex workflows in a database. We present the development of the AiiDA-KKR plugin that allows to perform a large number of ab initio impurity embedding calculations based on the relativistic full-potential Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker Green function method. The capabilities of …
Impurity levels and formation energies of acceptors in wurtzite GaN are predicted ab initio. Be_Ga is found to be the shallow (thermal ionization energy $\sim$ 0.06 eV); $Mg_{Ga}$ and $Zn_{Ga}$ are mid-deep acceptors (0.23 eV and 0.33 eV respectively); $Ca_{Ga}$ and $Cd_{Ga}$ are deep acceptors ($\sim$0.65 eV); $Si_N$ is a midgap trap with high formation energy; finally, contrary to recent claims, $C_N$ is a deep acceptor (0.65 eV). Interstitials and heteroantisites are energetically not competitive with substitutional incorporation.
We report the direct observation of two mid-gap core d-states of differing symmetry for a single Fe atom embedded in GaAs. These states are distinguished by the strength of their hybridization with the surrounding host electronic structure. The mid-gap state of Fe that does not hybridize via sigma-bonding is strongly localized to the Fe atom, whereas the other, which does, is extended and comparable in size to other acceptor states. Tight-binding calculations of these mid-gap states agree with the spatial structure of the measured wave functions, and illustrate that such measurements can deter…
We demonstrate on the basis of ab initio simulations how passivated semiconductor surfaces can be exploited to study bulklike interaction properties and wave functions of magnetic impurities on the atomic scale with conventional and spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy. By applying our approach to the case of $3d$ transition metal impurities close to the H/Si$(111)$ surface, we show exemplarily that their wave functions in Si are less extended than for Mn in GaAs, thus obstructing ferromagnetism in Si. Finally, we discuss possible applications of this method to other dilute magnetic se…
The local magnetic moment of Ti:ZnO is calculated from first principles by using the corrected-band-gap scheme (CBGS). The results shows that the system is magnetic with the magnetization of 0.699 $μ_B$ per dopant. The origin of the local magnetic moment is considered to be the impurity band partially occupied by the donor electrons in the conduction band. Further, the impacts of applying Hubbard U to Ti-d orbital on the magnetic moment have been investigated.
A first-principles calculation of the impurity screening in Si and Ge nanocrystals is presented. We show that isocoric screening gives results in agreement with both the linear response and the point-charge approximations. Based on the present ab initio results, and by comparison with previous calculations, we propose a physical real-space interpretation of the several contributions to the screening. Combining the Thomas-Fermi theory and simple electrostatics, we show that it is possible to construct a model screening function that has the merit of being of simple physical interpretation. The …
We present an ab initio study of the relaxations introduced in TiO2 when a Cd impurity substitutes a Ti atom and the experimental test of this calculation by a perturbed-angular-correlation (PAC) measurement of the orientation of the electric-field gradient (EFG) tensor at the Cd site. The ab-initio calculation predicts strong anisotropic relaxations of the nearest oxygen neighbors of the impurity and a change of the orientation of the largest EFG tensor component, V33, from the [001] to the [110] direction upon substitution of a Ti atom by a Cd impurity. The last prediction is confirmed by th…
In this paper we investigate the effect of Cd doping at ultra-low concentrations in SnO$_2$ both experimentally, by measuring the temperature dependence of the electric quadrupole hyperfine interactions with time-differential perturbed angular correlation (TDPAC) spectroscopy using $^{111}$Cd as probe nuclei, and theoretically, by performing first-principles calculations based on the density functional theory. TDPAC spectra were successfully analyzed with a time-dependent on-off model for the perturbation factor. These results show combined dynamic plus static interactions whose electric-field…
The electronic structure of a prototype dilute magnetic semiconductor (DMS), Ga1-xMnxAs, is studied by magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectroscopy. We prove that the optical transitions originated from impurity bands cause the strong positive MCD background. The MCD signal due to the E0 transition from the valence band to the conduction band is negative indicating that the p-d exchange interactions between the p-carriers and d-spin is antiferromagnetic. The negative E0 MCD signal also indicates that the hole-doping of the valence band is not so large as previously assumed. The impurity band…
We present ab initio quasiparticle self-energy calculations in crystalline GaAs for cases of intense electronic excitation (~ 10% of valence electrons excited into conduction band), relevant for high-intensity ultra-short pulsed laser experiments. Calculations are performed using an out-of-equilibrium generalization of the GW approximation based on the Keldysh Green's function approach. Our results indicate that while the band gap is a sensitive function of the amount of excitation, it is not possible to induce complete band gap closure in this system by purely electronic means.
We report on an ab initio strategy based on Density Functional Theory to identify the muon sites. Two issues must be carefully addressed, muon delocalization about candidate interstitial sites and local structural relaxation of the atomic positions due to $μ^+$-sample interaction. Here, we report on the validation of our strategy on two wide band gap materials, LiF and YF3, where localization issues are important because of the interplay between muon localization and lattice relaxation
We report the compositional dependence of the electronic band structure for a range of III-V alloys. Density functional theory with the PBE functional is insufficient to mimic the electronic gap energies at different symmetry points of the Brillouin zone. The HSE hybrid functional with screened exchange accurately reproduces the experimental band gaps and, more importantly, the alloy concentration of the direct-indirect gap crossovers for the III-V alloys studied here: AlGaAs, InAlAs, AlInP, InGaP, and GaAsP.
The quantum anomalous Hall effect (QAHE), characterized by dissipationless quantized edge transport, relies crucially on a non-trivial topology of the electronic bulk bandstructure and a robust ferromagnetic order that breaks time-reversal symmetry. Magnetically-doped topological insulators (TIs) satisfy both these criteria, and are the most promising quantum materials for realizing the QAHE. Because the spin of the surface electrons aligns along the direction of magnetic-impurity exchange field, only magnetic TIs with an out-of-plane magnetization are thought to open a gap at the Dirac point …
We propose a unique way to control both bandgap and the magnetic properties of nanoscale graphene, which might prove highly beneficial for application in nanoelectronic and spintronic devices. We have shown that chemical doping by nitrogen along a single zigzag edge breaks the sublattice symmetry of graphene. This leads to the opening of a gap and a shift of the molecular orbitals localized on the doped edge in such a way that the spin gap asymmetry, which can lead to half-metallicity under certain conditions, is obtained. The spin-selective behavior of graphene and tunable spin gaps help us t…
We study the gate voltage induced gap that occurs in graphene bilayers using \textit{ab initio} density functional theory. Our calculations confirm the qualitative picture suggested by phenomenological tight-binding and continuum models. We discuss enhanced screening of the external interlayer potential at small gate voltages, which is more pronounced in the \textit{ab initio} calculations, and quantify the role of crystalline inhomogeneity using a tight-binding model self-consistent Hartree calculation.
Titanium dioxide has been extensively studied in recent decades for its important photocatalytic application in environmental purification. The search for a method to narrow the optical band-gap of TiO2 plays a key role for enhancing its photocatalytic application. The optical band gap of epitaxial rutile and anatase TiO2 thin films deposited by helicon magnetron sputtering on sapphire and on SrTiO3 substrates was correlated to the lattice constants estimated from HRTEM images and SAED. The optical band-gap of 3.03 eV for bulk-rutile increased for the thin films to 3.37 on sapphire. The band g…
We analyze the conduction bands of the one dimensional noble-metal chains that contain a Co magnetic impurity by means of ab initio calculations. We compare the results obtained for Cu and Ag pure chains, as well as O doped Cu, Ag and Au chains with those previously found for Au pure chains. We find similar results in the case of Cu and Au hosts, whereas for Ag chains a different behavior is obtained. Differences and similarities among the different systems are analyzed by comparing the electronic structure of the three noble-metal hosts. The d-orbitals of Cu chains at the Fermi level have the…
Second neighbor dominated exchange coupling in CaV4O9 has been obtained from ab initio density functional (DF) calculations. A DF-based self-consistent atomic deformation model reveals that the nearest neighbor coupling is small due to strong cancellation among the various superexchange processes. Exact diagonalization of the predicted Heisenberg model yields spin-gap behavior in good agreement with experiment. The model is refined by fitting to the experimental susceptibility. The resulting model agrees very well with the experimental susceptibility and triplet dispersion.
We report the electronic properties of the quadruple perovskite CaCu$_{3}$Ti$_{4}$O$_{12}$ as obtained via several density-functional based methods, and propose a new interpretation of optical experiments to the effect that four distinct transitions (centered around 0.7, 1.5, 2.5, and 3.5 eV) contribute to the spectrum. The comparison with experiment is satisfactory, especially after we account for the effects of spin disorder, which does not close the fundamental gap but suppresses the transition intensity. We find that some of the methods we employ tend to overestimate considerably the gaps …
Metal nano-aerogels combine a large surface area, a high structural stability, and a high catalytic activity towards a variety of chemical reactions. The performance of such nanostructures is underpinned by the atomic-level distribution of their constituents. Yet monitoring their sub-nanoscale structure and composition to guide property optimization remains extremely challenging. Here, we synthesized Pd nano-aerogels from a K2PdCl4 precursor and two different NaBH4 reductant concentrations in distilled water. Atom probe tomography reveals that the aerogel is poly-crystalline and that impuritie…
Hybrid halide perovskites are currently under intense investigation due to their potential applications in optoelectronics and solar cells. Among them, MAPbI$_3$ where MA stands for the methylammonium cation, exhibits ideal properties for solar cells. In attempt to identify new lead-free halide perovskites we have studied using \textit{ab-initio} electronic structure calculations in conjunction with hybrid functionals a series of MABX$_3$ compounds where B is a divalent cation and X a halogen atom. Our results suggest that the compounds under study exhibit a variety of lattice constants and en…
An ab initio study of the doping of alkali halide crystals (AX: A = Li, Na, K, Rb; X = F, Cl, Br, I) by ns2 anions (Ag- and Cu-) is presented. Large active clusters with 179 ions embedded in the surrounding crystalline lattice are considered in order to describe properly the lattice relaxation induced by the introduction of substitutional impurities. In all the cases considered, the lattice distortions imply the concerted movement of several shells of neighbors. The shell displacements are smaller for the smaller anion Cu-, as expected. The study of the family of rock-salt alkali halides (exce…
While being of persistent interest for the integration of lattice-matched laser devices with silicon circuits, the electronic structure of dilute nitride III/V-semiconductors has presented a challenge to ab initio computational approaches. The root of this lies in the strong distortion N atoms exert on most host materials. Here, we resolve these issues by combining density functional theory calculations based on the meta-GGA functional presented by Tran and Blaha (TB09) with a supercell approach for the dilute nitride Ga(NAs). Exploring the requirements posed to supercells, we show that the di…
