Density Functional Theory Studies of the Metal-Insulator Transition in Vanadium Dioxide Alloys

Vanadium dioxide (VO2) is of great interest because it has a metal–insulator transition involving a change in structure and electronic structure. For certain applications, it is useful to vary the bandgap and the transition temperature. Although strain can be used, another method is to alloy VO2 with oxides such as GeO2 or MgO. Herein, density functional supercell calculations are carried out on these alloys. The bandgap of the alloys does not change because the band edges of the M1 phase consist of V 3d bands, where V is sixfold bonded. However, there is also a fivefold VO2/MgO structure with a much larger bandgap of up to 2.1 eV. For Ge alloying, the structure reverts to the rutile phase but with a bandgap, because GeO2 has a rutile phase. It is also found that hydrogen doping varies the oxide gap between 0 to 1 eV. The result is consistent with experimental observations and it gives an important view to explain the mechanism of alloying.The authors acknowledge funding from a European Commission H2020 grant (Phase‐change switch)

Electronic structure, defect formation and passivation of 2D materials

The emerging 2D materials are potential solutions to the scaling of electronic devices to smaller sizes with lower energy cost and faster computing speed. Unlike traditional semiconductors e.g. Si, Ge, 2D materials do not have surface dangling bonds and the short-channel effect. A wide variety of band structure is available for different functions. The aim of the thesis is to calculate the electronic structures of several important 2D materials and study their application in particular devices, using density functional theory (DFT) which provides robust results. The Schottky barrier height (SBH) is calculated for hexagonal nitrides. The SBH has a linear relationship with metal work function but the slope does not always equal because Fermi level pinning (FLP) arises. The chemical trend of FLP is investigated. Then we show that the pinning factor of Si can be tuned by inserting an oxide interlayer, which is important in the application to dopant-free Si solar cells. Apart from contact resistance, we want to improve the conductivity of the electrode. This can be done by using a physisorbed contact layer like FeCl3, AuCl3, and SbF5 etc. to dope the graphene without making the graphene pucker so these dopants do not degrade the graphene’s carrier mobility. Then we consider the defect formation of 2D HfS2 and SnS2 which are candidates in the n-type part of a tunnel FET. We found that these two materials have high mobility but there are also intrinsic defects including the S vacancy, S interstitial, and Hf/Sn interstitial. Finally, we study how to make defect states chemically inactive, namely passivation. The S vacancy is the most important defect in mechanically exfoliated 2D MoS2. We found that in the most successful superacid bis(trifluoromethane) sulfonamide (TFSI) treatment, H is the passivation agent. A symmetric adsorption geometry of 3H in the -1 charge state can remove all gap states and return the Fermi level to the midgap

Chemical trends of Schottky barrier behavior on monolayer hexagonal B, Al, and Ga nitrides

The Schottky Barrier Heights (SBH) of metal layers on top of monolayer hexagonal Xnitrides (X=B, Al, Ga, h-XN) are calculated using supercells and density functional theory so as to understand the chemical trends of contact formation on graphene and the 2D layered semiconductors such as the transition metal dichalcogenides. The Fermi level pinning factor S of SBHs on h-BN is calculated to be near 1, indicating no pinning. For h-AlN and h-GaN, the calculated pinning factor is about 0.63, less than for h-BN. We attribute this to the formation of stronger, chemisorptive bonds between the nitrides and the contact metal layer. Generally the h-BN layer remains in a planar sp² geometry and has weak physisorptive bonds to the metals, whereas h-AlN and h-GaN buckle out of their planar geometry which enables them to form the chemisorbtive bonds to the metals.The authors acknowledge EPSRC and CSC for funding

Charge transfer doping of graphene without degrading carrier mobility

Density functional calculations are used to analyze the charge transfer doping mechanism by molecules absorbed onto graphene. Typical dopants studied are AuCl3, FeCl3, SbF5, HNO3, MoO3, Cs2O, O2, and OH. The Fermi level shifts are correlated with the electron affinity or ionization potential of the dopants. We pay particular attention to whether the dopants form direct chemisorptive bonds which cause the underlying carbon atoms to pucker to form sp3 sites as these interrupt the p bonding of the basal plane, and cause carrier scattering and thus degrade the carrier mobility. Most species even those with high or low electronegativity do not cause puckering. In contrast, reactive radicals like -OH cause puckering of the basal plane, creating sp3 sites which degrade mobility

Band edge states, intrinsic defects, and dopants in monolayer HfS2 and SnS2

Although monolayer HfS2 and SnS2 do not have a direct bandgap like MoS2, they have much higher carrier mobilities. Their band offsets are favorable for use with WSe2 in tunnel field effect transistors. Here, we study the effective masses, intrinsic defects, and substitutional dopants of these dichalcogenides. We find that HfS2 has surprisingly small effective masses for a compound that might appear partly ionic. The S vacancy in HfS2 is found to be a shallow donor while that in SnS2 is a deep donor. Substitutional dopants at the S site are found to be shallow. This contrasts with MoS2 where donors and acceptors are not always shallow or with black phosphorus where dopants can reconstruct into deep non-doping configurations. It is pointed out that HfS2 is more favorable than MoS2 for semiconductor processing because it has the more convenient CVD precursors developed for growing HfO2.We thank EPSRC Grant No. EP/P005152/1 and CSC for support

Automatic Calculation of the Transition Temperatures for two-dimensional Heisenberg type Magnets

Theoretical prediction of the 2nd-order magnetic transition temperature (TM) used to be arduous. Here, we develop a first principle-based, fully automatic structure-to-TM method for two-dimensional (2D) magnets whose effective Hamiltonians follow the Heisenberg model. The Heisenberg exchanges, which can be calculated to an arbitrary shell, are transferred into the Monte Carlo calculation. Using Cr-based magnets as the showcases, we show that our method is a powerful tool to study the 2D magnets in two aspects. First, considering long-range exchanges enables us to identify the spin frustration in the suspended CrTe2 monolayer, whereas the heterostructure calculations reveal that the ferromagnetism can be recovered if the monolayer CrTe2 is grown onto various 2D substrates. Second, we realize a high-throughput screening of novel magnets discovered by random structure searches. Six 2D Cr chalcogenides are selected to have high TM. Our work provides a new insight for the study of 2D magnets and helps accelerate the pace of magnetic materials data-mining

Electronic structure of metallic and insulating phases of vanadium dioxide and its oxide alloys

VO2 attracts much attention due to its metal-insulator transition. Alloying VO2 with MgO and GeO2 allows the band gap and the transition temperature to be varied. We find that the spin order plays a key role in creating the band gap in the low-temperature M1 phase. For MgO alloying, the alloying fraction n(MgnV1−nO2−n) is varied from 12.5 to 33.3%. The minimum band gap does not change without a structural rearrangement because both band edges of insulating VO2 consist of only V 3d states on sixfold-coordinated V sites. A crystal search finds that if the Mg fraction in the alloy is large enough (>20%), fivefold-coordinated V sites can have lower energy than the sixfold sites, and the band gaps are doubled. For GeO2 alloying, the insulating M1 structure reverts to rutile because GeO2 has a rutile phase. The result matches the experimental observation and is very important in guiding VO2's applications such as smart coating and nonlinear resistor.The authors acknowledge funding from Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Grant No. EP/P005152/1 and European Commissio

Advanced glycation end products accelerate ischemia/reperfusion injury through receptor of advanced end product/nitrative thioredoxin inactivation in cardiac microvascular endothelial cells.

The advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are associated with increased cardiac endothelial injury. However, no causative link has been established between increased AGEs and enhanced endothelial injury after ischemia/reperfusion. More importantly, the molecular mechanisms by which AGEs may increase endothelial injury remain unknown. Adult rat cardiac microvascular endothelial cells (CMECs) were isolated and incubated with AGE-modified bovine serum albumin (BSA) or BSA. After AGE-BSA or BSA preculture, CMECs were subjected to simulated ischemia (SI)/reperfusion (R). AGE-BSA increased SI/R injury as evidenced by enhanced lactate dehydrogenase release and caspase-3 activity. Moreover, AGE-BSA significantly increased SI/R-induced oxidative/nitrative stress in CMECs (as measured by increased inducible nitric oxide synthase expression, total nitric oxide production, superoxide generation, and peroxynitrite formation) and increased SI/R-induced nitrative inactivation of thioredoxin-1 (Trx-1), an essential cytoprotective molecule. Supplementation of EUK134 (peroxynitrite decomposition catalyst), human Trx-1, or soluble receptor of advanced end product (sRAGE) (a RAGE decoy) in AGE-BSA precultured cells attenuated SI/R-induced oxidative/nitrative stress, reduced SI/R-induced Trx-1 nitration, preserved Trx-1 activity, and reduced SI/R injury. Our results demonstrated that AGEs may increase SI/R-induced endothelial injury by increasing oxidative/nitrative injury and subsequent nitrative inactivation of Trx-1. Interventions blocking RAGE signaling or restoring Trx activity may be novel therapies to mitigate endothelial ischemia/reperfusion injury in the diabetic population