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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.

Constrained density functional theory (CDFT) is used to evaluate the energy level alignment of a benzene molecule as it approaches a graphene sheet. Within CDFT the problem is conveniently mapped onto evaluating total energy differences between different charge-separated states, and it does not consist in determining a quasi-particle spectrum. We demonstrate that the simple local density approximation provides a good description of the level aligmnent along the entire binding curve, with excellent agreement to experiments at an infinite separation and to GW calculations close to the bonding distance. The method also allows us to explore the effects due to the presence of graphene structural defects and of multiple molecules. In general all our results can be reproduced by a classical image charge model taking into account the finite dielectric constant of graphene., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures

The charge transport properties of hybrid halide perovskites are investigated with a combination of density functional theory including van der Waals interaction and the Boltzmann theory for diffusive transport in the relaxation time approximation. We find the mobility of electrons to be in the range 5-10 cm$^2$V$^{-1}$s$^{-1}$ and that for holes within 1-5 cm$^2$V$^{-1}$s$^{-1}$, where the variations depend on the crystal structure investigated and the level of doping. Such results, in good agreement with recent experiments, set the relaxation time to about 1 ps, which is the time-scale for the molecular rotation at room temperature. For the room temperature tetragonal phase we explore two possible orientations of the organic cations and find that the mobility has a significant asymmetry depending on the direction of the current with respect to the molecular axis. This is due mostly to the way the PbI$_3$ octahedral symmetry is broken. Interestingly we find that substituting I with Cl has minor effects on the mobilities. Our analysis suggests that the carrier mobility is probably not a key factor in determining the high solar-harvesting efficiency of this class of materials., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

The hybrid halide perovskite CH$_{3}$NH$_{3}$PbI$_{3}$ has enabled solar cells to reach an efficiency of about 18\%, demonstrating a pace for improvements with no precedents in the solar energy arena. Despite such explosive progress, the microscopic origin behind the success of such material is still debated, with the role played by the organic cations in the light-harvesting process remaining unclear. Here van-der-Waals-corrected density functional theory calculations reveal that the orientation of the organic molecules plays a fundamental role in determining the material electronic properties. For instance, if CH$_{3}$NH$_{3}$ orients along a (011)-like direction, the PbI$_{6}$ octahedral cage will distort and the band gap will become indirect. Our results suggest that molecular rotations, with the consequent dynamical change of the band structure, might be at the origin of the slow carrier recombination and the superior conversion efficiency of CH$_{3}$NH$_{3}$PbI$_{3}$.

We investigate by first-principles simulations the resonant electron-transfer lifetime from the excited state of an organic adsorbate to a semiconductor surface, namely isonicotinic acid on rutile TiO$_2$(110). The molecule-substrate interaction is described using density functional theory, while the effect of a truly semi-infinite substrate is taken into account by Green's function techniques. Excitonic effects due to the presence of core-excited atoms in the molecule are shown to be instrumental to understand the electron-transfer times measured using the so-called core-hole-clock technique. In particular, for the isonicotinic acid on TiO$_2$(110), we find that the charge injection from the LUMO is quenched since this state lies within the substrate band gap. We compute the resonant charge-transfer times from LUMO+1 and LUMO+2, and systematically investigate the dependence of the elastic lifetimes of these states on the alignment among adsorbate and substrate states., Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Journal of Physical Chemistry C

We have investigated polyyne and cumulene prototypes based on the density-functional theory. Our independent-particle spectra show that the various carbynes can be distinguished by optical properties comparing the low-energy spectral structure as well as using very general considerations. The latter conclusion is supported by results based on the random-phase approximation including local-field effects., Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures

Ab-initio calculations within Density Functional Theory combined with experimental Raman spectra on cluster-beam deposited pure carbon films provide a consistent picture of sp-carbon chains stabilized by sp^3 or sp^2 terminations, the latter being sensitive to torsional strain. This unexplored effect promises many exciting applications since it allows one to modify the conductive states near the Fermi level and to switch on and off the on-chain pi-electron magnetism., Comment: in print in Phys Rev Lett