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Achieving highly spin-polarized current at the nanoscale is of paramount importance in molecular spintronics. Using a self-consistent ab initio approach that combines the nonequilibrium Green’s fun...

Vertically stacked van der Waals heterostructures made of two-dimensional compounds are almost an infinite playground for the fabrication of nano-engineered materials for the most diverse applications. Unfortunately, high-throughput electronic structure theory, which often serves as a guidance for material design, is not practical in this case. In fact, the compositional and structural complexity of van der Waals heterostructures make the number of prototypes to calculate combinatorially large. In this work a method is developed to compute the bandstructure of van der Waals heterostructures with an arbitrary composition and geometry using minimal computational resources. Such scheme is applied to the systematic study of a library of two-dimensional hexagonal XY2 compounds. The method is based on the density functional theory and on the assumption that the inter-layer electronic interaction is limited to classical electrostatic screening. Our analysis enables us to identify and categorize a large range of van der Waals bilayer heterostructures with electronic band gaps of different nature ranging from 0.1 to 5.5 eV and various types of band line-up.

The effect of a ferromagnetic scanning tunneling microscope (STM) cobalt tip on the electronic, magnetic and electronic transport properties of a Co-phthalocyanine (CoPc)/Co(111) junction has been investigated in the framework of density functional theory in conjunction with Landauer transport and the non-equilibrium Green function formalism. It is shown that the spin magnetic moment of the CoPc molecule can be flipped by varying the distance between the STM tip and the CoPc molecule when passing from the tunneling regime to the contact regime. Our calculations show that such spin flip of the CoPc molecule leads to a change of the sign of the Tunneling Magneto-Resistance ratio (TMR). The change from the tunneling to contact regime also leads to large changes in the total and spin-polarized I–V characteristics.

Forecasting the structural stability of hybrid organic/inorganic compounds, where polyatomic molecules replace atoms, is a challenging task; the composition space is vast, and the reference structure for the organic molecules is ambiguously defined. In this work, we use a range of machine-learning algorithms, constructed from state-of-the-art density functional theory data, to conduct a systematic analysis on the likelihood of a given cation to be housed in the perovskite structure. In particular, we consider both ABC3 chalcogenide (I-V-VI3) and halide (I-II-VII3) perovskites. We find that the effective atomic radius and the number of lone pairs residing on the A-site cation are sufficient features to describe the perovskite phase stability. Thus, the presented machine-learning approach provides an efficient way to map the phase stability of the vast class of compounds, including situations where a cation mixture replaces a single A-site cation. This work demonstrates that advanced electronic structure theory combined with machine-learning analysis can provide an efficient strategy superior to the conventional trial-and-error approach in materials design.

Paramagnetic molecules can show long spin-coherence times, which make them good candidates as quantum bits (qubits). Reducing the efficiency of the spin-phonon interaction is the primary challenge toward achieving long coherence times over a wide temperature range in soft molecular lattices. The lack of a microscopic understanding about the role of vibrations in spin relaxation strongly undermines the possibility of chemically designing better-performing molecular qubits. Here we report a first-principles characterization of the main mechanism contributing to the spin-phonon coupling for a class of vanadium(IV) molecular qubits. Post-Hartree-Fock and density functional theory methods are used to determine the effect of both intermolecular and intramolecular vibrations on modulation of the Zeeman energy for four molecules showing different coordination geometries and ligands. This comparative study provides the first insight into the role played by coordination geometry and ligand-field strength in determining the spin-lattice relaxation time of molecular qubits, opening an avenue to the rational design of new compounds.

The mechanism of silver-oxygen and silver-sulfur reactions is revealed by means of molecular dynamics simulations, performed with reactive force fields purposely built and extensively tested against quantum-chemical results. Different reaction mechanisms and rates for Ag-O and Ag-S emerge. This study solves the long-lasting question why silver exposed to the environment is strongly vulnerable to sulfur corrosion (tarnishing) but hardly reacts with O2 , despite the thermodynamic prediction that both oxide and sulfide should form. The reliability of the simulation results is confirmed by the agreement with a multitude of experimental results from the literature.

We calculate the component of the photovoltage in bismuth ferrite that is generated by ferroelectric domain walls, using first-principles methods, in order to compare its magnitude to the experimentally measured photovoltage. We find that excitons at the ferroelectric domain walls form an electric dipole layer resulting in a domain-wall driven photovoltage. This is of the same order of magnitude as the experimentally measured one, but only if the carrier lifetimes and diffusion lengths are larger than previously assumed., The peer-review process resulted in this revised article version

Transition-metal oxides with pyroxene structure, such as alkali-metal metavanadates, are known for their good chemical stability and have been used accordingly in many applications. In this work, we explore the possibility of enhancing the carrier transport and optoelectronic properties of hybrid inorganic–organic metavanadates MVO3 by introducing molecular cations. The hydrogen bonded molecular cations are found to enhance the electronic effective dimensionality of the system. This is related to the connectivity of the atomic orbitals to form new electron and hole transport channels. For the materials considered here, these channels are formed by hydrogen bonding that, besides enhancing the stability, results in enhanced macroscopic electronic transport and enhanced photo-generated carriers relaxation time. Our study indicates that the electronic dimensionality of the hybrid metavanadates could exceed their subnanometer structural dimensionality which is a desirable feature for improving their optoelectronic properties. This concept can be generalized to a wider class of hybrid organic–inorganic frameworks.

We propose here an amino acid nanosensor based on a single armchair graphene nanoribbon (AGNR) connected to two gold electrodes. Using the non-equilibrium Green’s function method for quantum transport together with density functional theory, we compute the electrical properties of the sensor before and after the adsorption of different amino acids on the AGNR. Our results show that there is a significant shift of the projected density of states and of the transmission function, T , upon adsorption with a distinct response depending on the specific amino acid. These results suggest that AGNRs may be employed as materials of choice in bio-sensorics.

The ability to control the nature of charge carriers in single-molecule junctions is of paramount importance to the design of molecular scale CMOS logic circuits. One major limitation is that the present methods for tuning the polarity of the charge carriers in molecular junctions always rely on chemical modifications of certain moieties of the central molecule. Here we investigate this issue by computing the electronic transport properties of graphene–porphine–graphene (GPG) molecular junctions with the nonequilibrium Green’s function formalism combined with density functional theory. Our calculations show that the dominant charge carriers in these GPG junctions can be tuned from holes to electrons by simply varying the number of C–C covalent bonds formed at the porphine-graphene interfaces. When porphine is doubly fused to graphene, it exhibits p-type transport behavior; in contrast, the triply fused one displays n-type behavior. The cause of this is that distinct linkage motifs lead to a rearrangement ...

The two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has attracted widespread attention for its extraordinary electrical, optical, spin and valley related properties. Here, we report on spin polarized tunneling through chemical vapor deposited (CVD) multilayer MoS2 (~7 nm) at room temperature in a vertically fabricated spin-valve device. A tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) of 0.5 - 2 % has been observed, corresponding to spin polarization of 5 - 10 % in the measured temperature range of 300 - 75 K. First principles calculations for ideal junctions results in a tunnel magnetoresistance up to 8 %, and a spin polarization of 26 %. The detailed measurements at different temperatures and bias voltages, and density functional theory calculations provide information about spin transport mechanisms in vertical multilayer MoS2 spin-valve devices. These findings form a platform for exploring spin functionalities in 2D semiconductors and understanding the basic phenomenon that control their performance.

Organometallic-halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are emerging as the most promising next generation solar cell devices. However, the stability is still the main bottleneck of their further development. Here, we introduce two-dimensional (2D) molybdenum chalcogenides (MoS2 and MoSe2) (MCs) nanoflakes as a buffer layer between perovskite layer and hole transport layer (HTL) to improve the stability of the organometallic-halide PSCs. 2D MCs are obtained via liquid-phase exfoliated (LPE) approach, and Glass/FTO/compact-TiO2/ mesoporous-TiO2/FA85MA15PbI85Br15/2D MCs/Spiro-OMeTAD/Au structured solar cell devices are designed and fabricated. In this system, 2D MCs act both as a protective layer and an additional HTL of PSCs. This kind of PSCs achieve a relatively high-power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 14.9%, along with a much longer lifetime stability compared to the standard PSCs. After 1 h, PCE of the PSC adding a 2D MCs buffer layer could maintain 93.1% of initial value, while the PCE of the standard PSC dropped dramatically to 78.2% of initial efficiency. Our results pave the way towards the implementation of 2D MCs nanoflakes as a material able to boost the shelf life of PSCs and further provide the opportunity to fabricate large-area PSCs in view of their commercialization.

Machine learning atomic potentials can universally describe chemical bonds in both organic and organometallic compounds., Computational studies of chemical processes taking place over extended size and time scales are inaccessible by electronic structure theories and can be tackled only by atomistic models such as force fields. These have evolved over the years to describe the most diverse systems. However, as we improve the performance of a force field for a particular physical/chemical situation, we are also moving away from a unified description. Here, we demonstrate that a unified picture of the covalent bond is achievable within the framework of machine learning–based force fields. Ridge regression, together with a representation of the atomic environment in terms of bispectrum components, can be used to map a general potential energy surface for molecular systems at chemical accuracy. This protocol sets the ground for the generation of an accurate and universal class of potentials for both organic and organometallic compounds with no specific assumptions on the chemistry involved.

We perform a systematic investigation of the spin-phonon coupling leading to spin relaxation in the prototypical mononuclear single molecule magnet [(tpaPh)Fe]−. In particular we analyze in detail the nature of the most relevant vibrational modes giving rise to the relaxation. Our fully ab initio calculations, where the phonon modes are evaluated at the level of density functional theory and the spin-phonon coupling by mapping post-Hartree–Fock electronic structures onto an effective spin Hamiltonian, reveal that acoustic phonons are not active in the spin-phonon relaxation process of dilute SMMs crystals. Furthermore, we find that intra-molecular vibrational modes produce anisotropy tensor modulations orders of magnitude higher than those associated to rotations. In light of these results we are able to suggest new designing rules for spin-long-living SMMs which go beyond the tailoring of static molecular features but fully take into account dynamical features of the vibrational thermal bath evidencing those internal molecular distortions more relevant to the spin dynamics.

Molecules exhibiting a spin-crossover transition have been proposed for a number of applications such as molecular switches, spintronic tunable interfaces, and single molecule gates. Both the rational design of new spin-crossover systems and the improvement of the properties of the already existing ones require a theoretical understanding of the relative energy of the high (HS) and low spin state (LS) molecules in the solid-state. This has proved to be very challenging so far. Here, we shed some light on the importance of considering the symmetry and the geometry of the crystallographic cell to correctly evaluate the influence of the dipolar interactions on the relative energies of the molecular complex in both different spin states. Moreover, in the case of Fe(SCN)2(phen)2 dipolar interactions are found to play an important role for the stabilization of the LS complex. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

By first-principle calculations, we have systematically studied the effect of strain/pressure on the electronic structure of rutile lead/stannic dioxide (PbO2/SnO2). We find that pressure/strain has a significant impact on the electronic structure of PbO2/SnO2. Not only can the band gap be substantially tuned by pressure/strain, but also a transition between a semiconductor and a gapless/band-inverted semimetal can be manipulated. Furthermore, the semimetallic state is robust under strain, indicating a bright perspective for electronics applications. In addition, a practical approach to realizing strain in SnO2 is then proposed by substituting tin (Sn) with lead (Pb), which also can trigger the transition from a large-band-gap to a moderate-gap semiconductor with enhanced electron mobility. This work is expected to provide guidance for full utilization of the flexible electronic properties in PbO2 and SnO2.

The atomic structure and electronic transport properties of Au-mesitylene-Au molecular junctions formed from a mesitylene monolayer without any anchoring groups are investigated by employing the non-equilibrium Green's function formalism combined with density functional theory. The intermolecular and adsorbate-substrate interactions are described by the non-local optB88 van der Waals functional. Two types of Au-mesitylene-Au molecular junctions are constructed, in which either an isolated mesitylene molecule or a mesitylene molecule embedded into a monolayer lying flat on one electrode surface is in contact with an atomic protrusion of the other electrode surface. The calculated low-bias conductance values of these two junctions are both in quantitative agreement with the reported experimental values [S. Afsari, Z. Li, and E. Borguet, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 9771; Angew. Chem. 2014, 126, 9929]. This indicates that the measured conductance is intrinsic at the single-molecule Au-mesitylene-Au junction and that the intermolecular interactions in the mesitylene monolayer have little effect.

The fabrication of 2D systems for electronic devices is not straightforward, with top-down low-yield methods often employed leading to irregular nanostructures and lower quality devices. Here, a simple and reproducible method to trigger self-assembly of arrays of high aspect-ratio chiral copper heterostructures templated by the structural anisotropy in black phosphorus (BP) nanosheets is presented. Using quantitative atomic resolution aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy imaging, in situ heating transmission electron microscopy and electron energy-loss spectroscopy arrays of heterostructures forming at speeds exceeding 100 nm s(-1) and displaying long-range order over micrometers are observed. The controlled instigation of the self-assembly of the Cu heterostructures embedded in BP is achieved using conventional electron beam lithography combined with site specific placement of Cu nanoparticles. Density functional theory calculations are used to investigate the atomic structure and suggest a metallic nature of the Cu heterostructures grown in BP. The findings of this new hybrid material with unique dimensionality, chirality, and metallic nature and its triggered self-assembly open new and exciting opportunities for next generation, self-assembling devices.

Recent years have witnessed a growing effort in engineering and tuning the properties of hybrid halide perovskites as light absorbers. These have led to the successful enhancement of their stability, a feature that is often counterbalanced by a reduction of their power-conversion efficiency. In order to provide a systematic analysis of the structure–property relationships of this class of compounds we have performed density functional theory calculations exploring fully inorganic ABC3 chalcogenide (I–V–VI3), halide (I–II–VII3) and hybrid perovskites. Special attention has been given to structures featuring three-dimensional BC6 octahedral networks because of their efficient carrier transport properties. In particular we have carefully analyzed the role of BC6 octahedral deformations, rotations and tilts in the thermodynamic stability and optical properties of the compounds. By using machine learning algorithms we have estimated the relations between the octahedral deformation and the bandgap, and established a similarity map among all the calculated compounds.

Spin-orbit interaction is an important vehicle for spin relaxation. At finite temperature lattice vibrations modulate the spin-orbit interaction and thus generate a mechanism for spin-phonon coupling, which needs to be incorporated in any quantitative analysis of spin transport. Starting from a density functional theory ab initio electronic structure, we calculate spin-phonon matrix elements over the basis of maximally localized Wannier functions. Such coupling terms form an effective Hamiltonian to be used to extract thermodynamic quantities, within a multiscale approach particularly suitable for organic crystals. The symmetry of the various matrix elements is analyzed by using the $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}$-point phonon modes of a one-dimensional chain of Pb atoms. Then the method is employed to extract the spin-phonon coupling of solid durene, a high-mobility crystal organic semiconductor. Owing to the small masses of carbon and hydrogen spin orbit is weak in durene and so is the spin-phonon coupling. Most importantly, we demonstrate that the largest contribution to the spin-phonon interaction originates from Holstein-like phonons, namely, from internal molecular vibrations.

The relationship between the molecular structure and the electronic transport properties of molecular junctions based on thiol-terminated oligoethers, which are obtained by replacing every third methylene unit in the corresponding alkanethiols with an oxygen atom, is investigated by employing the non-equilibrium Green's function formalism combined with density functional theory. Our calculations show that the low-bias conductance depends strongly on the conformation of the oligoethers in the junction. Specifically, in the cases of trans-extended conformation, the oxygen-dominated transmission peaks are very sharp and well below the Fermi energy, EF, thus hardly affect the transmission around EF; the Au-S interface hybrid states couple with σ-bonds in the molecular backbone forming the conduction channel at EF, resulting in a conductance decay against the molecular length close to that for alkanethiols. By contrast, for junctions with oligoethers in helical conformations, some π-type oxygen orbitals coupling with the Au-S interface hybrid states contribute to the transmission around EF. The molecule-electrode electronic coupling is also enhanced at the non-thiol side due to the specific spatial orientation introduced by the twist of the molecular backbone. This leads to a much smaller conductance decay constant. Our findings highlight the important role of the molecular conformation of oligoethers in their electronic transport properties and are also helpful for the design of molecular wires with heteroatom-substituted alkanethiols.

Transition metal dichalcogenides have a laminar structure, with strongly covalently bonded layers weakly interacting through van der Waals forces. They are of special interest also because of their unique properties once exfoliated in nanoflakes. We analyze the microstructure of oxidized TiS2 nanoflakes with atomically resolved scanning transmission electron microscopy and propose a comprehensive model for their reactivity by means of first-principles simulations. In particular we find that reaction to water proceeds from the edges of the flake, while it is thermodynamically possible but kinetically hindered in the middle, unless it is initiated by the presence of a surface vacancy. Importantly O substitution for S allows fine-tuning control of the flake bandgap, paving the way for the use of TiS2-xOx alloys as surface catalysts and photovoltaic materials.

Although transition metal dichalcogenides such as MoS2 have been recognized as highly potent two-dimensional nanomaterials, general methods to chemically functionalize them are scarce. Herein, we demonstrate a functionalization route that results in organic groups bonded to the MoS2 surface via covalent C-S bonds. This is based on lithium intercalation, chemical exfoliation and subsequent quenching of the negative charges residing on the MoS2 by electrophiles such as diazonium salts. Typical degrees of functionalization are 10-20 atom % and are potentially tunable by the choice of intercalation conditions. Significantly, no further defects are introduced, and annealing at 350 °C restores the pristine 2H-MoS2. We show that, unlike both chemically exfoliated and pristine MoS2, the functionalized MoS2 is very well dispersible in anisole, confirming a significant modification of the surface properties by functionalization. DFT calculations show that the grafting of the functional group to the sulfur atoms of (charged) MoS2 is energetically favorable and that S-C bonds are formed.

Pulay terms arise in the Hellman-Feynman forces in electronic structure calculations when one employs a basis set made of localized orbitals that move with their host atoms. If the total energy of the system depends on a subspace population defined in terms of the localized orbitals across multiple atoms, then unconventional Pulay terms will emerge due to the variation of the orbital nonorthogonality with ionic translation. Here, we derive the required exact expressions for such terms, which cannot be eliminated by orbital orthonormalization. We have implemented these corrected ionic forces within the linear-scaling density functional theory (DFT) package ONETEP, and have used constrained DFT to calculate the reorganization energy of a pentacene molecule adsorbed on a graphene flake. The calculations are performed by including ensemble DFT, corrections for periodic boundary conditions, and empirical Van der Waals interactions. For this system we find that tensorially invariant population analysis yields an adsorbate subspace population that is very close to integer-valued when based upon nonorthogonal Wannier functions, and also but less precisely when using pseudoatomic functions. Thus, orbitals can provide a very effective population analysis for constrained DFT. Our calculations show that the reorganization energy of the adsorbed pentacene is typically lower than that of pentacene in the gas phase. We attribute this effect to steric hindrance., 12 pages, 6 figures, and 2 tables. As accepted for publication in Physical Review B on 25th April 2018

Polynuclear magnetic molecules often present dense electronic transmission spectra with many overlapping conduction spin channels. Single-metal complexes display a sparser density of states, which in the presence of a fixed external magnetic field makes them interesting candidates for spin filtering. Here we perform a DFT study of a family of bis- and tris-dithiolate vanadium complexes sandwiched between Au(111) electrodes and demonstrate that [VO(C3S4O)2]2– can behave as a dual spin filter. This means that an external electrical stimulus can switch between the selective transmission of spin-up and spin-down carriers. By using an electrostatic gate, we show that the onset for the spin-up conductance is at a voltage Vg = −0.51 V, but a small shift to Vg = −0.63 V is capable of switching to spin-down transport. For both cases, we estimate a large low-bias conductance (approximately 2 μS at Vbias 99.5%). We conclude by commenting on the general molecular requirement...

The atomic structure and electronic transport properties of two types of molecular junctions, in which a series of saturated and conjugated molecules are symmetrically connected to gold electrodes through methylsulfide groups, are investigated using the non-equilibrium Green's function formalism combined with density functional theory. Our calculations show that the low-bias junction conductance is determined by the electronic tunneling between the two Au-S donor-acceptor bonds formed at the molecule-electrode interfaces. For alkanes with 4, 6, and 8 carbon atoms in the chain, the Au-S bonds moderately couple with the σ-type frontier molecular orbitals of the alkane backbone and thus prefer to be coplanar with the alkane backbone in the junction. This results in an exponential decrease of the junction conductance as a function of the number of methylene groups. In contrast, the Au-S bonds couple strongly with the π-type orbitals of the 1,4'-bis(methylsulfide)benzene and 4,4'-bis(methylsulfide)biphenyl molecules and thus tend to be perpendicular to the neighboring benzene rings, leading to the rather large junction conductance. Our findings contribute to the understanding of the low-bias conducting mechanism and facilitate the design of molecular electronic devices with methylsulfide groups and gold electrodes.

The properties of liquids in a confined environment are known to differ from those in the bulk. Extending this knowledge to geometries defined by two metallic layers in contact with the ends of a carbon nanotube is important for describing a large class of nanodevices that operate in non-aqueous environments. Here we report a series of classical molecular dynamics simulations for gold-electrode junctions in acetone, cyclohexane and N,N-dimethylformamide solutions and analyze the structure and the dynamics of the solvents in different regions of the nanojunction. The presence of the nanotube has little effect on the ordering of the solvents along its axis, while in the transversal direction deviations are observed. Importantly, the orientational dynamics of the solvents at the electrode–nanotube interface differ dramatically from that found when only the electrodes are present.

It is often assumed that the hydrogen atoms in the thiol groups of a benzene-1,4-dithiol dissociate when Au-benzene-1,4-dithiol-Au junctions are formed. We demonstrate, by stability and transport properties calculations, that this assumption can not be made. We show that the dissociative adsorption of methanethiol and benzene-1,4-dithiol molecules on a flat Au(111) surface is energetically unfavorable and that the activation barrier for this reaction is as high as 1 eV. For the molecule in the junction, our results show, for all electrode geometries studied, that the thiol junctions are energetically more stable than their thiolate counterparts. Due to the fact that density functional theory (DFT) within the local density approximation (LDA) underestimates the energy difference between the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital and the highest occupied molecular orbital by several electron-volts, and that it does not capture the renormalization of the energy levels due to the image charge effect, the conductance of the Au-benzene-1,4-dithiol-Au junctions is overestimated. After taking into account corrections due to image charge effects by means of constrained-DFT calculations and electrostatic classical models, we apply a scissor operator to correct the DFT energy levels positions, and calculate the transport properties of the thiol and thiolate molecular junctions as a function of the electrodes separation., Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures, to appear in Nanoscale

Spin-polarized materials with Dirac features have sparked great scientific interest due to their potential applications in spintronics. But such a type of structure is very rare and none has been fabricated. Here, we investigate the already experimentally synthesized manganese fluoride (MnF_{3}) as a novel spin-polarized Dirac material by using first-principles calculations. MnF_{3} exhibits multiple Dirac cones in one spin orientation, while it behaves like a large gap semiconductor in the other spin channel. The estimated Fermi velocity for each cone is of the same order of magnitude as that in graphene. The 3D band structure further reveals that MnF_{3} possesses rings of Dirac nodes in the Brillouin zone. Such a spin-polarized multiple Dirac ring feature is reported for the first time in an experimentally realized material. Moreover, similar band dispersions can be also found in other transition metal fluorides (e.g., CoF_{3}, CrF_{3}, and FeF_{3}). Our results highlight a new interesting single-spin Dirac material with promising applications in spintronics and information technologies.

In a straightforward application of molecular nanospintronics to quantum computing, single-molecule spin transistors can be used to measure nuclear spin qubits. Conductance jumps accompany electronic spin flips at the so-called anticrossings between energy levels, which take place only at specific magnetic fields determined by the nuclear spin state. To date, the only molecular hardware employed for this technique has been the terbium(III) bis(phthalocyaninato) complex. Here we explore theoretically whether a similar behavior is expected for a highly stable molecular spin qubit, the vanadium tris-dithiolate complex [VIV(α-C3S5)3]2–. We consider such a molecule between two gold electrodes and determine the spin-dependent conductance. We verify that the transport channel in experimental conditions does not overlap with the occupied spin orbitals, indicating that the spin states may survive in the conduction regime. We validate the robustness of the theoretical methodology by studying two chemically related ...

Using first-principles calculations, we study the electronic and transport properties of rutheniumterpyridine molecules sandwiched between two Au(111) electrodes. We analyse both single and packed molecular devices, more amenable to scaling and realistic integration approaches. The devices display all together robust negative differential resistance features at low bias voltages. Remarkably, the electrical control of the spin transport in the studied systems implies a subtle distribution of the magnetisation density within the biased devices and highlights the key role of the Au(111) electrical contacts.

We present a joint experimental and theoretical study on the transport properties of nickel nanoconstrictions. The samples show highly non-linear and asymmetric I-V characteristics when the conductance is smaller than G(0) = 2e(2)/h, and huge magneto resistance ratios exceeding 99.9%. We model a single point contact in a two-band tight-binding model as a 2 x 2 nickel chain connected to two semi-infinite nickel leads. The magnetoresistance is calculated by using a non-equilibrium Green's function technique. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier B.V.

An electron current can move atoms in a nanoscale device with important consequences for the device operation and breakdown. We perform first principles calculations aimed at evaluating the possibility of changing the energy barriers for atom migration in carbon-based systems. In particular, we consider the migration of adatoms and defects in graphene and carbon nanotubes. Although the current-induced forces are large for both the systems, in graphene the force component along the migration path is small and therefore the barrier height is little affected by the current flow. In contrast, the same barrier is significantly reduced in carbon nanotubes as the current increases. Our work also provides a real-system numerical demonstration that current-induced forces within density functional theory are non-conservative.

The evolution of the atomic structure and the vibrational and electronic transport properties of gold atomic junctions incorporating molecular and atomic hydrogen upon elongation have been investigated with the nonequilibrium Green's function formalism combined with density functional theory. Our calculations show that for the case of gold junctions doped with a single ${\mathrm{H}}_{2}$ molecule the low-bias conductance drops rapidly with the electrodes' separation, while it remains almost constant if a single H atom replaces the molecule. In contrast, when one considers two H atoms adsorbed on a gold monatomic chain forming an Au-H-Au-H-Au double-bridge structure, the low-bias conductance increases first and then shows a plateau upon stretching the junction, in perfect agreement with experiments on gold nanocontacts in hydrogen environment. Furthermore, also the distribution of the calculated vibrational energies of the two H atoms is consistent with the experimental result in the low-conductance region, demonstrating clear evidence that hydrogen molecules can dissociate on stretched gold monatomic chains. These findings are helpful to improve our understanding of the structure-property relation of gold nanocontacts and also provide a new prospect for gold nanowires being used as chemical sensors and catalysts.

With the aim of understanding electrochemical scanning tunnel microscopy experiments in an aqueous environment, we investigate electron transport through ice in the coherent limit. This is done by using the nonequilibrium Green’s functions method, implemented within density functional theory, in the self-interaction corrected local density approximation. In particular, we explore different ice structures and different Au electrode surface orientations. By comparing the decay coefficient for different thicknesses to the ice complex band structure, we find that the electron transport occurs via tunneling with almost one-dimensional character. The slow decay of the current with the ice thickness is largely due to the small effective mass of the conduction electrons. Furthermore, we find that the calculated tunneling decay coefficients at the Fermi energy are not sensitive to the structural details of the junctions and are at the upper end of the experimental range for liquid water. This suggests that linear ...

An important development in recent synthesis strategies is the formation of electronically coupled one and two-dimensional organic systems for potential applications in nanoscale molecule-based devices. Here, we assemble one-dimensional spin chains by covalently linking basic molecular building blocks on a Au(111) surface. Their structural properties are studied by scanning tunneling microscopy and the Kondo effect of the basic molecular blocks inside the chains is probed by scanning tunneling spectroscopy. Tunneling spectroscopic images reveal the existence of separate Kondo regions within the chains while density functional theory calculations unveil antiferromagnetic coupling between the spin centers.

Contact geometry and the electronic transport properties of Ag–benzene–Ag molecular junctions have been investigated by using first-principles quantum transport simulations. Our calculations show that a moderate benzene–silver interaction can be achieved when benzene is adsorbed on the Ag(1 1 1) surface through adatoms. In this case three symmetric Ag–benzene–Ag junction models can be constructed, in which the molecule is connected to the electrodes through one or two Ag adatoms on each side. Although the contribution to the transmission around the Fermi level made by the benzene molecular orbitals depends on the number of Ag adatoms and the detailed binding configuration, the transmission coefficients at the Fermi level of the three junctions are calculated to be respectively 0.20, 0.18 and 0.16. These values are well consistent with the experimental ones of 0.24 ± 0.08. Our results thus demonstrate that the conductance of Ag–benzene–Ag junctions is rather stable regardless of the molecule/electrode contact geometry.

Quasi-one-dimensional nanotubes and two-dimensional nanoribbons are two fundamental forms of nanostructures, and integrating them into a novel mixed low-dimensional nanomaterial is fascinating and challenging. We have synthesized a stable mixed low-dimensional nanomaterial consisting of MoS(2) inorganic nanoribbons encapsulated in carbon nanotubes (which we call nanoburritos). This route can be extended to the synthesis of nanoburritos composed of other ultranarrow transition-metal chalcogenide nanoribbons and carbon nanotubes. The widths of previously synthesized MoS(2) ribbons are greater than 50 nm, while the encapsulated MoS(2) nanoribbons have uniform widths down to 1-4 nm and layer numbers down to 1-3, depending on the nanotube diameter. The edges of the MoS(2) nanoribbons have been identified as zigzag-shaped using both high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and density functional theory calculations.

The conductance of a benzene molecule connected to two ruthenium (Ru) electrodes through two C(H) anchoring groups is investigated using a self-consistent ab initio approach that combines the non-equilibrium Green’s function formalism with density functional theory. Our calculations demonstrate that a nearly perfect conductance with magnitude exceeding 84% of the conductance quantum G 0 can be obtained when the two C(H) anchoring groups are bonded to a Ru adatom on the Ru(0 0 0 1) surface, independently from whether this is a Ru C double bond or a Ru C triple bond. Both the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of the benzene backbone interact with the Ru–C π bonds in the contact region to form efficient charge transport channels, illustrating the high conducting nature of benzene.

The energy difference between the high spin and the low spin state of the model compound [Fe(NCH)6]2+ is investigated by means of Diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC), where special attention is dedicated to analyzing the effect of the fix node approximation on the accuracy of the results. For this purpose, we compare several Slater–Jastrow and multireference Slater–Jastrow trial wave functions. We found that a Slater–Jastrow trial wave function constructed with the generalized Kohn–Sham orbitals from hybrid DFT represents the optimal choice. This is understood by observing that hybrid functionals account for the subtle balance between exchange and correlation effects and the respective orbitals accurately describe the ligand–metal hybridization as well as the charge reorganization accompanying the spin transition. Finally the DMC results are compared with those obtained by Hartree–Fock, DFT, CASSCF, and CASPT2. While there is no clear reference value for the high spin–low spin energy difference, DMC and high level CCSD(T) calculations agree within around 0.3 eV., M.F. acknowledges the Spanish Government for financial support (Projects MAT2011-25972 and MAT2014-54025-P), the University of Barcelona, and the Fundació Universitaria Agustí Pedro i Pons for funding her stay in Dublin, where this work was started. L.K.W. was supported by NSF DMR-1206242. S.S. was supported by the European Research Council (Quest project). A.D. was supported by the EU project Acmol (FP7-FET GA618082).

Platinum diselenide (PtSe2) is a newly discovered 2D material which is of great interest for applications in electronics and catalysis. PtSe2 films were synthesized by thermally assisted selenization of predeposited platinum films and scanning transmission electron microscopy revealed the crystal structure of these films to be 1T. Raman scattering of these films was studied as a function of film thickness, laser wavelength and laser polarization. Eg and A1g Raman active modes were identified using polarization measurements in the Raman setup. These modes were found to display a clear position and intensity dependence with film thickness, for multiple excitation wavelengths, and their peak positions agree with simulated phonon dispersion curves for PtSe2. These results highlight the practicality of using Raman spectroscopy as a prime characterization technique for newly synthesized 2D materials.

Few-layer black phosphorus (BP) is a new two-dimensional material which is of great interest for applications, mainly in electronics. However, its lack of environmental stability severely limits its synthesis and processing. Here we demonstrate that high-quality, few-layer BP nanosheets, with controllable size and observable photoluminescence, can be produced in large quantities by liquid phase exfoliation under ambient conditions in solvents such as N-cyclohexyl-2-pyrrolidone (CHP). Nanosheets are surprisingly stable in CHP, probably due to the solvation shell protecting the nanosheets from reacting with water or oxygen. Experiments, supported by simulations, show reactions to occur only at the nanosheet edge, with the rate and extent of the reaction dependent on the water/oxygen content. We demonstrate that liquid-exfoliated BP nanosheets are potentially useful in a range of applications from ultrafast saturable absorbers to gas sensors to fillers for composite reinforcement., While phosphorene is an exciting new 2D material, techniques to produce it in large quantities in a stable, processable form are lacking. Here, the authors achieve this using liquid phase exfoliation and demonstrate the resultant nanosheets to be useful in a number of applications.

We establish a rigorous computational scheme for constructing an effective Hamiltonian to be used for the determination of the charge carrier mobility of pure organic crystals at finite temperature, which accounts for van der Waals interactions, and it includes vibrational contributions from the entire phonon spectrum of the crystal. Such an approach is based on the ab initio framework provided by density functional theory and the construction of a tight-binding effective model via Wannier transformation. The final Hamiltonian includes coupling of the electrons to the crystals phonons, which are also calculated from density functional theory. We apply this methodology to the case of durene, a small π-conjugated molecule, which forms a high-mobility herringbone-stacked crystal. We show that accounting correctly for dispersive forces is fundamental for obtaining a high-quality phonon spectrum, in agreement with experiments. Then, the mobility as a function of temperature is calculated along different crystallographic directions and the phonons most responsible for the scattering are identified.

The electronic efficiency and binding energy of contacts formed between graphene electrodes and poly-aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) anchoring groups have been investigated by the non-equilibrium Green’s function formalism combined with density functional theory. Our calculations show that PAH molecules always bind in the interior and at the edge of graphene in the AB stacking manner, and that the binding energy increases following the increase of the number of carbon and hydrogen atoms constituting the PAH molecule. When we move to analyzing the electronic transport properties of molecular junctions with a six-carbon alkyne chain as the central molecule, the electronic efficiency of the graphene-PAH contacts is found to depend on the energy gap between the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of the corresponding PAH anchoring group, rather than its size. To be specific, the smaller is the HOMO-LUMO gap of the PAH anchoring group, the higher is the electronic efficiency of the graphene-PAH contact. Although the HOMO-LUMO gap of a PAH molecule depends on its specific configuration, PAH molecules with similar atomic structures show a decreasing trend for their HOMO-LUMO gap as the number of fused benzene rings increases. Therefore, graphene-conjugated molecule-graphene junctions with high-binding and high-conducting graphene-PAH contacts can be realized by choosing appropriate PAH anchor groups with a large area and a small HOMO-LUMO gap.

FERROMAGNETISM, that most mysterious of the common properties of solids, has long known its place in the periodic table: down among the transition metals. These elements, which include iron and cobalt, have a net magnetic moment in the solid state because their atoms contain unpaired electrons. One of the last places you would expect to find ferro-magnetism is in carbon, because its electrons love to pair up to form covalent bonds. These bonds are the antithesis of magnetic order, so how can we explain the increasing number of reports of magnetism in carbon?

Variants of fully spin-polarized electronic structures that may be found in ferromagnetic metals, semimetals and semiconductors are reviewed, with examples. A simple classification scheme is presented, with six broad categories. The attribution of a material to a particular category is based on chemical systematics, or density functional theory calculations. A simplified notation for the electronic structure of these ferromagnets is proposed.(Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version)

The atomic structure and the electron transfer properties of hydrogen bonds formed between two carboxylated alkanethiol molecules connected to gold electrodes are investigated by employing the non-equilibrium Green's function formalism combined with density functional theory. Three types of molecular junctions are constructed, in which one carboxyl alkanethiol molecule contains two methylene, -CH2, groups and the other one is composed of one, two, or three -CH2 groups. Our calculations show that, similarly to the cases of isolated carboxylic acid dimers, in these molecular junctions the two carboxyl, -COOH, groups form two H-bonds resulting in a cyclic structure. When self-interaction corrections are explicitly considered, the calculated transmission coefficients of these three H-bonded molecular junctions at the Fermi level are in good agreement with the experimental values. The analysis of the projected density of states confirms that the covalent Au-S bonds localized at the molecule-electrode interfaces and the electronic coupling between -COOH and S dominate the low-bias junction conductance. Following the increase of the number of the -CH2 groups, the coupling between -COOH and S decreases deeply. As a result, the junction conductance decays rapidly as the length of the H-bonded molecules increases. These findings not only provide an explanation to the observed distance dependence of the electron transfer properties of H-bonds, but also help the design of molecular devices constructed through H-bonds.