Accurate method for obtaining band gaps in conducting polymers using a DFT/hybrid approach

DFT calculations on a series of oligomers have been used to estimate band gaps, ionization potentials, electron affinities, and bandwidths for polyacetylene, polythiophene, polypyrrole, polythiazole, and a thiophene - thiazole copolymer. Using a slightly modified hybrid functional, we obtain band gaps within 0.1 eV of experimental solid-state values Calculated bond lengths and bond angles for the central ring of sexithiophene differ by less than 0.026 Å and 0.7° from those of the sexithiopnene crystal structure. IPs and EAs are overestimated by up to 0.77 eV compared to experimental bulk values. Extrapolated bandwidths agree reasonably well with bandwidths from band structure calculations

Comparison of geometries and electronic structures of polyacetylene, polyborole, polycyclopentadiene, polypyrrole, polyfuran, polysilole, polyphosphole, polythiophene, polyselenophene and polytellurophene

Geometries of monomers through hexamers of cylopentadiene, pyrrole, furan, silole, phosphole, thiophene, selenophene and tellurophene, and monomers through nonamers of borole were optimized employing density functional theory with a slightly modified B3P86 hybrid functional. Bandgaps and bandwidths were obtained by extrapolating the appropriate energy levels of trimers through hexamers (hexamers through nonamers for borole) to infinity, Bandgaps increase with increasing π-donor strengths of the heteroatom. In general, second period heteroatoms lead to larger bandgaps than their higher period analogs. Polyborole is predicted to have a very small or no energy gap between the occupied and the unoccupied π-levels. Due to its electron deficient nature polyborole differs significantly from the other polymers. It has a quinoid structure and a large electron affinity. The bandgaps of heterocycles with weak donors (CH 2, SiH 2 and PH) are close to that of polyacetylene. For polyphosphole this is due to the pyramidal geometry at the phosphorous which prevents interaction of the phosphorus lone pair with the π-system. The bandgap of polypyrrole is the largest of all polymers studied. This can be attributed to the large π-donor strength of nitrogen. Polythiophene has the third largest bandgap. The valence bandwidths differ considerably for the various polymers since the avoided crossing between the flat HOMO-1 band and the wide HOMO band occurs at different positions. The widths of the wide HOMO bands are similar for all systems studied. All of the polymers studied have strongly delocalized π-systems. © 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved

Theoretical analysis of effects of π-conjugating substituents on building blocks for conducting polymers

Geometries of 4-dicyanomethylene-4H-cyclopenta[2,1-b:3,4-b'] dithiophene 1 and its C=O, C=S, C=CH2, C=CF2, and C=C(SR)2 analogues were optimized using density functional theory. Three of the above groups, C=C(CN)2, C=O, and C=S, were also examined on dipyrrole, difuran, dicyclopentadiene, and diborole. Electronic structures were analyzed with respect to their suitability as building blocks for conducting polymers with the natural bond orbital (NBO) method. All bridging groups investigated decrease HOMO-LUMO gaps compared to the unsubstituted parent dimers. Substitution affects HOMO and LUMO energies. Energy gap reduction is caused by a stronger decrease of LUMO energies compared to HOMO energies. The C=S group leads to even smaller energy gaps than the dicyanomethylene group since the HOMO is lowered less in energy with C=S. Compared to unsubstituted dimers, the strongest substituent effects are found with pyrroles and furans. Boroles and thiophenes are least affected. The smallest HOMO-LUMO gaps are obtained for electron-poor systems such as boroles followed by cyclopentadienes. This is analogous to the trend for the unsubstituted parent systems. All of the bridging groups are potential π-acceptors due to their low-lying π*-orbitals, and the corresponding polymers are predicted to be n-dopable. In aromatic structures, the LUMO is localized around the bridging substituent and the coefficients at the α-carbon atoms that reflect electron density are small. This might contribute to the poor conductivity of the n-doped form of poly-1. Electron- poor monomers and polymers tend to switch to quinoid structures. In quinoid repeat units, the HOMO is localized but not as strongly as the LUMO in the aromatic repeat units. The LUMO in quinoid repeat units is delocalized with large coefficients at the α-carbon atoms. Quinoid polymers could therefore be good conductors in the n-doped state

Photoproduction of D∗±D^{*\pm} mesons associated with a leading neutron

The photoproduction of $D^{*\pm} (2010)$ mesons associated with a leading neutron has been observed with the ZEUS detector in $ep$ collisions at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 80 pb$^{-1}$. The neutron carries a large fraction, {$x_L>0.2$}, of the incoming proton beam energy and is detected at very small production angles, {$\theta_n<0.8$ mrad}, an indication of peripheral scattering. The $D^*$ meson is centrally produced with pseudorapidity {$|\eta| 1.9$ GeV}, which is large compared to the average transverse momentum of the neutron of 0.22 GeV. The ratio of neutron-tagged to inclusive $D^*$ production is $8.85\pm 0.93({\rm stat.})^{+0.48}_{-0.61}({\rm syst.})\%$ in the photon-proton center-of-mass energy range {$130 <W<280$ GeV}. The data suggest that the presence of a hard scale enhances the fraction of events with a leading neutron in the final state.Comment: 28 pages, 4 figures, 2 table

Externally fired combined cycle demonstration

Externally Fired Combined Cycles (EFCCs) can increase the amount of electricity produced from ash bearing fuels up to 40%, with overall powerplant efficiencies in excess of 45%. Achieving such high efficiencies requires high temperature-high pressure air heaters capable of driving modern gas turbines from gas streams containing the products of coal combustion. A pilot plant has been constructed in Kennebunk, Maine to provide proof of concept and evaluation of system components. Tests using pulverized Western Pennsylvania bituminous coal have been carried out since April, 1995. The ceramic air heater extracts energy from the products of coal combustion to power a gas turbine. This air heater has operated at gas inlet temperatures over 1,095 C and pressures over 7.0 atm without damage to the ceramic tube string components. Stable gas turbine operation has been achieved with energy input from the air heater and a supplementary gas fired combustor. Efforts are underway to fire the cycle on coal only, and to increase the duration of the test runs. Air heater improvements are being implemented and evaluated. These improvements include installation of a second pass of ceramic tubes and evaluation of corrosion resistant coatings on the ceramic tubes

All-optical quantum fluid spin beam splitter

We investigate the spin behavior of the first excited state of a polariton condensate in an optical trap by means of polarization resolved spectroscopy. The interplay between the repulsive polariton interactions and the gain saturation results in a nontrivial spontaneous switching between the two quasidegenerate spatial modes of the polariton condensate. As a result, the polarization pattern of the emitted light dramatically changes. Successful harnessing of this effect can lead to a spin-demultiplexing device for polariton-based optical integrated circuits.</p

Data for Optical bistability under non-resonant excitation in spinor polariton condensates

Experimental data and numerical simulation results used to create the figures in the paper Pickup, L., Kalinin, K., Askitopoulos, A. M., Hatzopoulos, Z., Savvidis, P. G., Berloff, N. G., &amp; Lagoudakis, P. (2018). Optical bistability under nonresonant excitation in spinor polariton condensates. Physical Review Letters. </span