Abstract: We present electronic band structures of transparent oxides calculated using the Tran-Blaha modified Becke-Johnson (TB-mBJ) potential. We studied the basic n-type conducting binary oxides In2O3, ZnO, CdO and SnO2 along with the p-type conducting ternary oxides delafossite CuXO2 (X = Al, Ga, In) and spinel ZnX2O4 (X = Co, Rh, Ir). The results are presented for calculated band gaps and effective electron masses. We discuss the improvements in the band gap determination using TB-mBJ compared to the standard generalized gradient approximation (GGA) in density functional theory (DFT) and also compare the electronic band structure with available results from the quasiparticle GW method. It is shown that the calculated band gaps compare well with the experimental and GW results, although the electron effective mass is generally overestimated.

Abstract: A model of the intermolecular potential in solid C-60, which is based on Born-Mayer repulsions, van der Waals attractions, and electrostatic multipoles, is presented. The potential is expanded in terms of multipolar rotator functions. The orientation-orientation interaction and the crystal field are calculated. The orientational phase transition to the Pa3 phase is studied with the methods of statistical mechanics. The discontinuity of the order parameter at the transition and the temperature evolution of the order parameter are calculated. The lattice contraction at the phase transition is evaluated. The influence of the lattice contraction on the crystal field and on the orientational order is studied.

Abstract: We examine the electronic structure of the family of ternary zinc spinel oxides ZnX2O4 (X=Al, Ga and In). The band gap of ZnAl2O4 calculated using density functional theory (DFT) is 4.25 eV and is overestimated compared with the experimental value of 3.83.9 eV. The DFT band gap of ZnGa2O4 is 2.82 eV and is underestimated compared with the experimental value of 4.45.0 eV. Since DFT typically underestimates the band gap in the oxide system, the experimental measurements for ZnAl2O4 probably require a correction. We use two first-principles techniques capable of describing accurately the excited states of semiconductors, namely the GW approximation and the modified BeckeJohnson (MBJ) potential approximation, to calculate the band gap of ZnX2O4. The GW and MBJ band gaps are in good agreement with each other. In the case of ZnAl2O4, the predicted band gap values are >6 eV, i.e. ~2 eV larger than the only reported experimental value. We expect future experimental work to confirm our results. Our calculations of the electron effective masses and the second band gap indicate that these compounds are very good candidates to act as transparent conducting host materials.

Abstract: The atomic scattering amplitudes of the various atoms of the systems Ga1−xInxAs, GaAs1−xNx and InAs1−xNx are calculated using the density functional theory (DFT) approach. The scattering amplitudes of N, Ga, As and In in the model systems are compared with the frequently used Doyle and Turner values. Deviation from the latter values is found for small scattering vectors (s<0.3Å−1) and for these scattering vectors dependence on the orientation of the scattering vector and the chemical environment is reported. We suggest a parametrization of these modified scattering amplitudes (MASAs) for small scattering vectors (s<1.0Å−1). The MASAs are exploited within zero pressure classical Metropolis Monte Carlo (MC), finite temperature calculations to investigate the effect of quantum well size on the electron {002} structure factor (SF) of Ga1−xInxAs quantum wells.

Abstract: Electron-energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) is used to investigate single layers of LaAlO3 grown on SrTiO3 having an n-type interface as well as multilayers of LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 in which both n- and p-type interfaces occur. Only minor changes in Ti valence at the n-type interface are observed. This finding seems to contradict earlier experiments for other SrTiO3/LaAlO3 systems where large deviations in Ti valency were assumed to be responsible for the conductivity of these interfaces. Ab initio calculations have been carried out in order to interpret our EELS results. Using the concept of Bader charges, it is demonstrated that the so-called polar discontinuity is mainly resolved by lattice distortions and to a far lesser extent by changes in valency for both single layer and multilayer geometries.

Abstract: Glassy phases which have insulating character exist for a variety of monatomic species. By contrast, until recently, it has been possible to make bulk metallic glasses (BMG) by vitrification only for multicomponent systems. After a relatively brief summary on supercooling of a few molecular liquids, we review some of the recently reported results on molecular assemblies of the series N, P, As and amorphous Si and Ge. Based on these results, we suggest that the transition metals with their directional bonding might be suitable candidates for the production of BMG by vitrification.

Abstract: The modified atomic scattering amplitudes (MASAs) of mixed Ga_1-xIn_xAs, GaAs_1-xN_x, and InAs_1-xN_x are calculated using the density functional theory approach and the results are compared with those of the binary counterparts. The MASAs of N, Ga, As, and In for various scattering vectors in various chemical environments and in the zinc-blende structure are compared with the frequently used Doyle and Turner values. Deviation from the Doyle and Turner results is found for small scattering vectors (s<0.3 Å^-1) and for these scattering vectors the MASAs are found to be sensitive to the orientation of the scattering vector and on the chemical environment. The chemical environment sensitive MASAs are used within zero pressure classical Metropolis Monte Carlo, finite temperature calculations to investigate the effect of well size on the electron 002 and 220 structure factors (SFs). The implications of the use of the 002 (200) spot for the quantification of nanostructured Ga_1-xIn_xAs systems are examined while the 220 SF across the well is evaluated and is found to be very sensitive to the in-plane static displacements.

Abstract: We present a new method to measure structure factors from electron spot diffraction patterns recorded under almost parallel illumination in transmission electron microscopes. Bloch wave refinement routines have been developed to refine the crystal thickness, its orientation and structure factors by comparison of experimentally recorded and calculated intensities. Our method requires a modicum of computational effort, making it suitable for contemporary personal computers. Frozen lattice and Bloch wave simulations of GaAs diffraction patterns are used to derive optimised experimental conditions. Systematic errors are estimated from the application of the method to simulated diffraction patterns and rules for the recognition of physically reasonable initial refinement conditions are derived. The method is applied to the measurement of the 200 structure factor for GaAs. We found that the influence of inelastically scattered electrons is negligible. Additionally, we measured the 200 structure factor from zero loss filtered two-dimensional convergent beam electron diffraction patterns. The precision of both methods is found to be comparable and the results agree well with each other. A deviation of more than 20% from isolated atom scattering data is observed, whereas close agreement is found with structure factors obtained from density functional theory [A. Rosenauer, M. Schowalter, F. Glas, D. Lamoen, Phys. Rev. B 72 (2005), 085326-1], which account for the redistribution of electrons due to chemical bonding via modified atomic scattering amplitudes.

Abstract: The effect of the size of the GaAs barrier and the Ga1−xInxAs well on the structural properties of a Ga1−xInxAs/GaAs multiple quantum well structure is investigated using the Metropolis Monte Carlo approach based on a well-parametrized Tersoff potential. It is found that within the well the Ga-As and In-As bond lengths undergo contractions whose magnitude increases with increasing In content in sharp contrast with bond-length variations in the bulk Ga1−xInxAs systems. For fixed barrier size and In content, the contraction of the bonds is also found to increase with increasing size of the well. Using the local atomic structure of the heterostructures, a more local analysis of the strain state of the systems is given and comparison with the prediction of macroscopic continuum elasticity theory shows deviations from the latter.

Abstract: We calculated the temperature dependence of the Debye-Waller factors for a variety of group IV, III-V and II-VI semiconductors from 0.1 to 1000 K. The approach used to fit the temperature dependence is described and resulting fit parameters are tabulated for each material. The Debye-Waller factors are deduced from generalized phonon densities of states which were derived from first principles using the WIEN2k and the ABINIT codes.

Abstract: The effect of temperature on the structural, electronic and optical properties of dense tetrahedral amorphous carbon made of similar to 80% sp(3)-bonded atoms is investigated using a combination of the classical Monte Carlo technique and density functional theory. A structural transformation accompanied by a slight decrease of the sp(3) fraction is evidenced above a temperature of about 600 degrees C. A structural analysis in combination with energy-loss near-edge structure calculations shows that beyond this temperature, the sp(2)-bonded C sites arrange themselves so as to enhance the conjugation of the p electrons. The Tauc optical band gap deduced from the calculated dielectric function shows major changes beyond this temperature in accordance with experimental results. Energy-loss near-edge structure and band gap calculations additionally reveal a massive destabilization of the of sp(3) bonding phase in favour of sp(2) bonding at a temperature of about 1300 degrees C which agrees very well with the reported value of 1100 degrees C.