Abstract: Layered Li-rich oxides, demonstrating both cationic and anionic redox chemistry being used as positive electrodes for Li-ion batteries,have raised interest due to their high specific discharge capacities exceeding 250 mAh/g. However, irreversible structural transformations triggered by anionic redox chemistry result in pronounced voltagefade (i.e., lowering the specific energy by a gradual decay of discharge potential) upon extended galvanostatic cycling. Activating or suppressing oxygen anionic redox through structural stabilization induced by redox-inactivecation substitution is a well-known strategy. However, less emphasishas been put on the correlation between substitution degree and theactivation/suppression of the anionic redox. In this work, Ti4+-substituted Li2MnO3 was synthesizedvia a facile solution-gel method. Ti4+ is selected as adopant as it contains no partially filled d-orbitals. Our study revealedthat the layered “honeycomb-ordered” C2/m structure is preserved when increasing the Ticontent to x = 0.2 in the Li2Mn1-x Ti (x) O-3 solidsolution, as shown by electron diffraction and aberration-correctedscanning transmission electron microscopy. Galvanostatic cycling hintsat a delayed oxygen release, due to an improved reversibility of theanionic redox, during the first 10 charge-discharge cyclesfor the x = 0.2 composition compared to the parentmaterial (x = 0), followed by pronounced oxygen redoxactivity afterward. The latter originates from a low activation energybarrier toward O-O dimer formation and Mn migration in Li2Mn0.8Ti0.2O3, as deducedfrom first-principles molecular dynamics (MD) simulations for the“charged” state. Upon lowering the Ti substitution to x = 0.05, the structural stability was drastically improvedbased on our MD analysis, stressing the importance of carefully optimizingthe substitution degree to achieve the best electrochemical performance.

Abstract: The DFT-1/2 method is a band-gap correction with GW precision at a density functional theory (DFT) computational cost. The method was also extended to correct the gap between defect levels, allowing for the calculation of optical transitions. However, this method fails when the atomic character of the occupied and unoccupied defect levels is similar as we illustrate by two examples, the tetrahedral hydrogen interstitial and the negatively charged vacancy in diamond. We solve this problem by decoupling the effect of the occupied and unoccupied defect levels and call this the decoupled DFT-1/2 method for defects.

Abstract: Ab initio calculations within the density-functional theory formalism are performed to investigate the chemical functionalization of a graphene-like monolayer of siliconsilicenewith B, N, Al, or P atoms. The structural, electronic, magnetic, and vibrational properties are reported. The most preferable adsorption sites are found to be valley, bridge, valley and hill sites for B, N, Al, and P adatoms, respectively. All the relaxed systems with adsorbed/substituted atoms exhibit metallic behavior with strongly bonded B, N, Al, and P atoms accompanied by an appreciable electron transfer from silicene to the B, N, and P adatom/substituent. The Al atoms exhibit opposite charge transfer, with n-type doping of silicene and weaker bonding. The adatoms/substituents induce characteristic branches in the phonon spectrum of silicene, which can be probed by Raman measurements. Using molecular dynamics, we found that the systems under study are stable up to at least T=500 K. Our results demonstrate that silicene has a very reactive and functionalizable surface.

Abstract: In this paper several nanodevices which realize basic single heavy-hole qubit operations are proposed and supported by time-dependent self-consistent Poisson-Schrodinger calculations using a four band heavy-hole-light-hole model. In particular we propose a set of nanodevices which can act as Pauli X, Y, Z quantum gates and as a gate that acts similar to a Hadamard gate (i.e., it creates a balanced superposition of basis states but with an additional phase factor) on the heavy-hole spin qubit. We also present the design and simulation of a gated semiconductor nanodevice which can realize an arbitrary sequence of all these proposed single quantum logic gates. The proposed devices exploit the self-focusing effect of the hole wave function which allows for guiding the hole along a given path in the form of a stable solitonlike wave packet. Thanks to the presence of the Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling, the motion of the hole along a certain direction is equivalent to the application of an effective magnetic field which induces in turn a coherent rotation of the heavy-hole spin. The hole motion and consequently the quantum logic operation is initialized only by weak static voltages applied to the electrodes which cover the nanodevice. The proposed gates allow for an all electric and ultrafast (tens of picoseconds) heavy-hole spin manipulation and give the possibility to implement a scalable architecture of heavy-hole spin qubits for quantum computation applications.

Abstract: The hydrogen interstitial and the substitutional AlZn, GaZn, and InZn are all shallow donors in ZnO and lead to n-type conductivity. Although shallow donors are expected to repel each other, we show by first-principles calculations that in ZnO these shallow donor impurities attract and form a complex, leading to a donor level deep in the band gap. This puts a limit on the n-type conductivity of (Al,Ga,In)-doped ZnO in the presence of hydrogen.

Abstract: The Green function approach to the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory of superconductivity is used to study nanofilms. We go beyond previous models and include effects of confinement on the strength of the electron-phonon coupling as well as on the electronic spectrum and on the phonon modes. Within our approach, we find that in ultrathin films, confinement effects on the electronic screening become very important. Indeed, contrary to what has been advanced in recent years, the sudden increases of the density of states when new bands start to be occupied as the film thickness increases, tend to suppress the critical temperature rather than to enhance it. On the other hand, the increase of the number of phonon modes with increasing number of monolayers in the film leads to an increase in the critical temperature. As a consequence, the superconducting critical parameters in such nanofilms are determined by these two competing effects. Furthermore, in sufficiently thin films, the condensate consists of well-defined subcondensates associated with the occupied bands, each with a distinct coherence length. The subcondensates can interfere constructively or destructively giving rise to an interference pattern in the Cooper pair probability density.

Abstract: Bi2Se3 is a three-dimensional topological insulator which has been extensively studied because it has a single Dirac cone on the surface, inside a relatively large bulk band gap. However, the effect of two-dimensional topological insulator Bi bilayers on the properties of Bi2Se3 and vice versa, has not been explored much. Bi bilayers are often present between the quintuple layers of Bi2Se3, since (Bi2)n(Bi2Se3)m form stable ground-state structures. Moreover, Bi2Se3 is a good substrate for growing ultrathin Bi bilayers. By first-principles techniques, we first show that there is no preferable surface termination by either Bi or Se. Next, we investigate the electronic structure of Bi bilayers on top of, or inside a Bi2Se3 slab. If the Bi bilayers are on top, we observe a charge transfer to the quintuple layers that increases the binding energy of the surface Dirac cones. The extra states, originating from the Bi bilayers, were declared to form a topological Dirac cone, but here we show that these are ordinary Rashba-split states. This result, together with the appearance of a new Dirac cone that is localized slightly deeper, might necessitate the reinterpretation of several experimental results. When the Bi bilayers are located inside the Bi2Se3 slab, they tend to split the slab into two topological insulators with clear surface states. Interface states can also be observed, but an energy gap persists because of strong coupling between the neighboring quintuple layers and the Bi bilayers.

Abstract: We investigated the effect of different stacking order of the four graphene layer system on the induced band gap when positively charged top and negatively charged back gates are applied to the system. A tight-binding approach within a self-consistent Hartree approximation is used to calculate the induced charges on the different graphene layers. We show that the electric field does not open an energy gap if the multilayer graphene system contains a trilayer part with the ABA Bernal stacking.

Abstract: Full ab initio techniques are applied to study the electronic and dynamical properties of free standing, hydrogen-passivated Si/Ge core-shell nanowires oriented along the [110] direction. All studied wires exhibit a direct band gap and are found to be structurally stable. The different contributions of the core and shell atoms to the phonon spectra are identified. The acoustic phonon velocities and the frequencies of some typical optical modes are compared with those of pure Si and Ge nanowires. These depend either on the concentration or on the type of core material. Optical modes are hardened and longitudinal acoustic velocities are softened with decreasing wire diameter.

Abstract: Ultrafine ZnO nanocrystals with a thickness down to 0.25 nm are grown by a metalorganic chemical vapor deposition method. Electronic band structures and native point defects of ZnO nanocrystals are studied by a combination of scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy and first-principles density functional theory calculations. Below a critical thickness of nm ZnO adopts a graphitic-like structure and exhibits a wide band gap similar to its wurtzite counterpart. The hexagonal wurtzite structure, with a well-developed band gap evident from scanning tunneling spectroscopy, is established for a thickness starting from similar to 1.4 nm. With further increase of the thickness to 2 nm, V-O-V-Zn defect pairs are easily produced in ZnO nanocrystals due to the self-compensation effect in highly doped semiconductors.

Abstract: The electronic and optical properties of InAs/GaSb core-shell nanowires are investigated within the effective mass k . p approach. These systems have a broken band gap, which results in spatially separated confinement of electrons and holes. We investigated these structures for different sizes of the InAs and GaSb core and shell radius. We found that for certain configurations, the conduction band states penetrate into the valence band states resulting in a negative band gap (E-g < 0), which leads to a conduction band ground state that lies below the valence band ground state at the Gamma point. For certain core-shell wires, only one conduction band state penetrates into the valence band and in this case, a minigap Delta opens up away from the Gamma point and as a consequence the electronic properties of the nanowire now depend on both E-g and Delta values.

Abstract: The effect of substitutional doping of fluorographene with boron and nitrogen atoms on its electronic and magnetic properties is investigated using first-principles calculations. It is found that boron dopants can be readily incorporated in the fluorographene crystal where they act as shallow acceptors and cause hole doping, but no changes in the magnetic properties are observed. Nitrogen dopants act as deep donors and give rise to a magnetic moment, but the resulting system becomes chemically unstable. These results are opposite to what was found for substitutional doping of graphane, i.e., hydrogenated graphene, in which case B substituents induce magnetism and N dopants do not.

Abstract: We consider a junction between two topological insulators and calculate the properties of the interface states with an effective low-energy Hamiltonian for topological insulators with a single cone on the surface. This system bears a close resemblance to bilayer graphene, as both result from the hybridization of Dirac cones. We find gapless interface states not only when the helicity directions of the topological surface states are oppositely oriented, but they can also exist if they are equally oriented. Furthermore, we find that the existence of the interface states can be understood from the closing of the bulk gap when the helicity changes orientation. Recently superluminal tachyonic excitations were also claimed to exist at the interface between topological insulators. However, here we show that these interface states do not exist. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.87.115113