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In this work, using the state-of-the-art first principles calculations based on density functional theory, we found that the concentration as well as coordination of surface oxygen vacancies with respect to each other were critical for direct water-splitting reaction on the (001) surfaces of PbTiO$_3$ and TiO$_2$. For the water-splitting reaction to happen on TiO$_2$-terminated surfaces, it is necessary to have two neighboring O-vacancies acting as active sites that host two adsorbing water molecules. However, eventual dissociation of O-H bonds is possible only in the presence of an additional nearest-neighbor O-vacancy. Unfortunately, this necessary third vacancy inhibits the formation of molecular hydrogen by trapping the dissociated H atoms over TiO$_2$-teminated surfaces. Formation of up to 3 O-vacancies, is energetically less costly on both terminations of PbTiO$_3$ (001) surfaces compared with that of TiO$_2$, the presence of Pb leads to weaker O bonds over these surfaces. Molecular hydrogen formation is more favorable over the PbO-terminated surface of PbTiO$_3$, requiring only two neighboring oxygen vacancies. However, hydrogen molecule is retained near the surface by weak van der Waals forces. Our study indicates two barriers leading to low productivity of direct water splitting processes. First and foremost, there is an entropic barrier imposed by the requirement of at least two nearest-neighbor O-vacancies, sterically hindering the process. Furthermore, there are also enthalpic barriers of formation over TiO$_2$-terminated surfaces, or removal of H$_2$ molecules from the PbO-terminated surface., Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures

Optical and electronic properties of black phosphorus strongly depend on the number of layers and type of stacking. Using first-principles calculations within the framework of density functional theory, we investigate the electronic properties of bilayer black phosphorus with an interlayer twist angle of 90$^\circ$. These calculations are complemented with a simple $\vec{k}\cdot\vec{p}$ model which is able to capture most of the low energy features and is valid for arbitrary twist angles. The electronic spectrum of 90$^\circ$ twisted bilayer black phosphorus is found to be x-y isotropic in contrast to the monolayer. However x-y anisotropy, and a partial return to monolayer-like behavior, particularly in the valence band, can be induced by an external out-of-plane electric field. Moreover, the preferred hole effective mass can be rotated by 90$^\circ$ simply by changing the direction of the applied electric field. In particular, a +0.4 (-0.4) V/{\AA} out-of-plane electric field results in a $\sim$60\% increase in the hole effective mass along the y (x) axis and enhances the $m^*_{y}/m^*_{x}$ ($m^*_{x}/m^*_{y}$) ratio as much as by a factor of 40. Our DFT and $\vec{k}\cdot\vec{p}$ simulations clearly indicate that the twist angle in combination with an appropriate gate voltage is a novel way to tune the electronic and optical properties of bilayer phosphorus and it gives us a new degree of freedom to engineer the properties of black phosphorus based devices., Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures

The investigation of thermal transport properties of novel two dimensional materials is crucially important in order to assess their potential to be used in future technological applications, such as thermoelectric power generation. In this respect, lattice thermal transport properties of monolayer structures of the group \textrm{VA} elements (P, As, Sb, Bi, PAs, PSb, PBi, AsSb, AsBi, SbBi, P$_{3}$As$_{1}$, P$_{3}$Sb$_{1}$, P$_{1}$As$_{3}$, As$_{3}$Sb$_{1}$) with black phosphorus like puckered structure were systematically investigated by first principles calculations and an iterative solution of the Phonon Boltzmann transport equation. Phosphorene was found to have the highest lattice thermal conductivity, $\kappa$, due to its low average atomic mass and strong interatomic bonding character. As a matter of course, anisotropic $\kappa$ were obtained for all the considered materials, owing to anisotropy in phonon group velocities and scattering rates (relaxation times) calculated for these structures. However, the determined linear correlation between the anisotropy in $\kappa$ of P, As, and Sb is significant. The results corresponding to the studied compound structures clearly point out that thermal (electronic) conductivity of pristine monolayers might be suppressed (improved) by alloying them with the same group elements. For instance, the room temperature $\kappa$ of PBi along armchair direction was predicted as low as 1.5 Wm$^{-1}$K$^{-1}$, whereas that of P was predicted to be 21 Wm$^{-1}$K$^{-1}$. In spite of the apparent differences in structural and vibrational properties, we peculiarly revealed an intriguing correlation between the $\kappa$ of all the considered materials as $\kappa$=c$_{1}$ + c$_{2}$/$m^{2}$, in particular along zigzag direction.

In most of the realistic ab initio and model calculations which have appeared on the emission of light from Si nanocrystals, the role of surface oxygen has been usually ignored, underestimated or completely ruled out. We investigate theoretically, by density functional theory (DFT/B3LYP) possible modes of oxygen bonding in hydrogen terminated silicon quantum dots using as a representative case of the Si29 nanocrystal. We have considered Bridge-bonded oxygen (BBO), Doubly-bonded oxygen (DBO), hydroxyl (OH) and Mix of these oxidizing agents. Due to stoichiometry, all comparisons performed are unbiased with respect to composition whereas spatial distribution of oxygen species pointed out drastic change in electronic and cohesive characteristics of nanocrytals. From an overall perspective of this study, it is shown that bridge bonded oxygenated nanocrystals accompanied by Mix have higher binding energies and large electronic gap compared to nanocrystals with doubly bonded oxygen atoms. In addition, it is observed that the presence of OH along with BBO, DBO and mixed configurations further lowers electronic gaps and binding energies and trends. It is also demonstrated that oxidizing constituent besides their spatial distribution significantly alters binding energy and highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) gap (HOMO-LUMO gap up to 1.48 eV) within same composition., Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures, 1 table

The adsorption of two different organic molecules cyanidin glucoside (C$_{21}$O$_{11}$H$_{20}$) and TA-St-CA on anatase (101) and (001) nanowires have been investigated using the standard and the range separated hybrid density functional theory calculations. The electronic structures and optical spectra of resulting dye--nanowire combined systems show distinct features for these types of photochromophores. The lowest unoccupied molecular orbital of the natural dye cyanidin glucoside is located below the conduction band of the semiconductor while, in the case of TA-St-CA, it resonates with the states inside the conduction band. The wide-bandgap anatase nanowires can be functionalized for solar cells through electron-hole generation and subsequent charge injection by these dye sensitizers. The intermolecular charge transfer character of Donor-$\pi$-Acceptor type dye TA-St-CA is substantially modified by its adsorption on TiO$_2$ surfaces. Cyanidin glucoside exhibits relatively stronger anchoring on the nanowires through its hydroxyl groups. The atomic structures of dye--nanowire systems re-optimized with the inclusion of nonlinear solvation effects showed that the binding strengths of both dyes remain moderate even in ionic solutions., Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures

The adsorption of organic molecules coumarin and the donor-$\pi$-acceptor type tetrahydroquinoline (C2-1) on anatase (101) and (001) nanowires have been investigated using screened Coulomb hybrid density functional theory calculations. While coumarin forms single bond with the nanowire surface, C2-1 additionally exhibits bidentate mode giving rise to much stronger adsorption energies. Nonlinear solvation effects on the binding characteristics of the dye chromophores on the nanowire facets have also been examined. These two dye sensitizers show different electronic charge distributions for the highest occupied and the lowest unoccupied molecular states. We studied the electronic structures in terms of the positions of the band edges and adsorbate related band gap states and their effect on the absorption spectra of the dye-nanowire combined systems. These findings were interpreted and discussed from the view point of better light harvesting and charge separation as well as in relation to more efficient charge carrier injection into the semiconductor nanowire., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, and 1 table

The electronic properties of quasi-one-dimensional anatase TiO2 nanostructures, in the form of thin nanowires having (101) and (001) facets, have been systematically investigated using the standard, hybrid density functional and quasiparticle calculations. Their visible photoabsorption characteristics have also been studied at these levels of theories. The thin stoichiometric nanowire models are predicted to have larger band gaps relative to their bulk values. The band gap related features appear to be better described with the screened Coulomb hybrid density functional method compared to the standard exchange-correlation schemes. Depending on the self-consistency in the perturbative GW methods, even larger energy corrections have been obtained for the band gaps of both (101) and (001) titanium dioxide nanowires., Comment: 7 pages, 1 table, 3 figures

We propose a general strategy to develop accurate Force Fields (FF) for metallic systems derived from ab initio quantum mechanical (QM) calculations; we illustrate this approach for tantalum. As input data to the FF we use the linearized augmented plane wave method (LAPW) with the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) to calculate: (i) the zero temperature equation of state (EOS) of Ta for bcc, fcc, and hcp crystal structures for pressures up to ~500 GPa. (ii) Elastic constants. (iii) We use a mixed-basis pseudopotential code to calculate volume relaxed vacancy formation energy also as a function of pressure. In developing the Ta FF we also use previous QM calculations of: (iv) the equation of state for the A15 structure. (v) the surface energy bcc (100). (vi) energetics for shear twinning of the bcc crystal. We find that withappropriate parameters an embedded atom model force field (denoted as qEAM FF) is able to reproduce all this QM data. Thus, the same FF describes with good accuracy the bcc, fcc, hcp and A15 phases of Ta for pressures from ~ -10 GPa to \~ 500 GPa, while also describing the vacancy, surface energy, and shear transformations. The ability of this single FF to describe such a range of systems with a variety of coordinations suggests that it would be accurate for describing defects such as dislocations, grain boundaries, etc. We illustrate the use of the qEAM FF with molecular dynamics to calculate such finite temperature properties as the melting curve up to 300 GPa; we obtain a zero pressure melting temperature of T_{melt}=3150 +/- 50 K in good agreement with experiment (3213-3287 K). We also report on the thermal expansion of Ta in a wide temperature range; our calculated thermal expansivity agrees well with experimental data., Comment: 11 pages, 14 figures

We have computed the variation of the vacancy formation energy with pressure for Ta. Total energy calculations were performed for 16 and 54 atom supercells using a mixed basis pseudopotential method which uses pseudo-atomic orbitals and low energy plane waves as the basis set, within density functional theory (LDA and GGA). The vacancy formation energy is found to increase from 2.95 eV at ambient pressures to 6.96 eV at 300 GPa, and the vacancy formation volume decreases from being 53.4% of the bulk volume per atom at ambient pressure to 19.6% at 300 GPa, for a 54 atom supercell. The structural relaxation energy is found to increase with pressure from 14% of the vacancy formation energy at ambient pressure to 16% at 300 GPa., Comment: Submitted to Physical Review B

Computer simulations suggest that ultrathin metal wires should develop exotic, non-crystalline stable atomic structures, once their diameter decreases below a critical size of the order of a few atomic spacings. The new structures, whose details depend upon the material and the wire thickness, may be dominated by icosahedral packings. Helical, spiral-structured wires with multi-atom pitches are also predicted. The phenomenon, analogous to the appearance of icosahedral and other non-crystalline shapes in small clusters, can be rationalized in terms of surface energy anisotropy and optimal packing., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, REVTeX