9,848 research outputs found
Electron-hole pairs during the adsorption dynamics of O2 on Pd(100) - Exciting or not?
During the exothermic adsorption of molecules at solid surfaces dissipation
of the released energy occurs via the excitation of electronic and phononic
degrees of freedom. For metallic substrates the role of the nonadiabatic
electronic excitation channel has been controversially discussed, as the
absence of a band gap could favour an easy coupling to a manifold of
electronhole pairs of arbitrarily low energies. We analyse this situation for
the highly exothermic showcase system of molecular oxygen dissociating at
Pd(100), using time-dependent perturbation theory applied to first-principles
electronic-structure calculations. For a range of different trajectories of
impinging O2 molecules we compute largely varying electron-hole pair spectra,
which underlines the necessity to consider the high-dimensionality of the
surface dynamical process when assessing the total energy loss into this
dissipation channel. Despite the high Pd density of states at the Fermi level,
the concomitant non-adiabatic energy losses nevertheless never exceed about 5%
of the available chemisorption energy. While this supports an electronically
adiabatic description of the predominant heat dissipation into the phononic
system, we critically discuss the non-adiabatic excitations in the context of
the O2 spin transition during the dissociation process.Comment: 20 pages including 7 figures; related publications can be found at
http://www.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/th/th.html [added two references, changed
V_{fsa} to V_{6D}, modified a few formulations in interpretation of spin
asymmetry of eh-spectra, added missing equals sign in Eg.(2.10)
Computational design of metal-supported molecular switches: Transient ion formation during light- and electron-induced isomerisation of azobenzene
In molecular nanotechnology, a single molecule is envisioned to act as the
basic building block of electronic devices. Such devices may be of special
interest for organic photovoltaics, data storage, and smart materials. However,
more often than not the molecular function is quenched upon contact with a
conducting support. Trial-and-error-based decoupling strategies via molecular
functionalisation and change of substrate have in many instances proven to
yield unpredictable results. The adsorbate-substrate interactions that govern
the function can be understood with the help of first-principles simulation.
Employing dispersion-corrected Density-Functional Theory (DFT) and linear
expansion Delta-Self-Consistent-Field DFT, the electronic structure of a
prototypical surface-adsorbed functional molecule, namely azobenzene adsorbed
to (111) single crystal facets of copper, silver and gold, is investigated and
the main reasons for the loss or survival of the switching function upon
adsorption are identified. The light-induced switching ability of a
functionalised derivative of azobenzene on Au(111) and azobenzene on Ag(111)
and Au(111) is assessed based on the excited-state potential energy landscapes
of their transient molecular ions, which are believed to be the main
intermediates of the experimentally observed isomerisation reaction. We provide
a rationalisation of the experimentally observed function or lack thereof that
connects to the underlying chemistry of the metal-surface interaction and
provides insights into general design strategies for complex light-driven
reactions at metal surfaces.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, submitted to J. Phys. Condens. Matte
Bistability loss as key feature in azobenzene (non-)switching on metal surfaces
Coinage metal adsorbed azobenzene is investigated as prototypical molecular
switch. It is shown that switching capabilities are not just lost due to
excited state quenching, but already due to changes in the ground state
energetics. Electron demanding coadsorbates are suggested as strategy to regain
the switching function.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure
Assessing computationally efficient isomerization dynamics: Delta-SCF density-functional theory study of azobenzene molecular switching
We present a detailed comparison of the S0, S1 (n -> \pi*) and S2 (\pi ->
\pi*) potential energy surfaces (PESs) of the prototypical molecular switch
azobenzene as obtained by Delta-self-consistent-field (Delta-SCF)
Density-Functional Theory (DFT), time-dependent DFT (TD-DFT) and approximate
Coupled Cluster Singles and Doubles (RI-CC2). All three methods unanimously
agree in terms of the PES topologies, which are furthermore fully consistent
with existing experimental data concerning the photo-isomerization mechanism.
In particular, sum-method corrected Delta-SCF and TD-DFT yield very similar
results for S1 and S2, when based on the same ground-state exchange-correlation
(xc) functional. While these techniques yield the correct PES topology already
on the level of semi-local xc functionals, reliable absolute excitation
energies as compared to RI-CC2 or experiment require an xc treatment on the
level of long-range corrected hybrids. Nevertheless, particularly the
robustness of Delta-SCF with respect to state crossings as well as its
numerical efficiency suggest this approach as a promising route to dynamical
studies of larger azobenzene-containing systems.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figure
NLO Simulations of Chargino Production at the ILC
We present an extension of the Monte Carlo Event Generator Whizard which
includes chargino production at the ILC at NLO. We present two ways of adding
photonic contributions. We present results for cross sections and event
generation.Comment: 4 pages, to appear in Proceedings of SUSY06, the 14th International
Conference on Supersymmetry and the Unification of Fundamental Interactions,
UC Irvine, California, 12-17 June 200
Magnetic field dependence of hole levels in self-assembled InAs quantum dots
Recent magneto-transport experiments of holes in InGaAs quantum dots [D.
Reuter, P. Kailuweit, A.D. Wieck, U. Zeitler, O. Wibbelhoff, C. Meier, A.
Lorke, and J.C. Maan, Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 026808 (2005)] are interpreted by
employing a multi-band kp Hamiltonian, which considers the interaction between
heavy hole and light hole subbands explicitely. No need of invoking an
incomplete energy shell filling is required within this model. The crucial role
we ascribe to the heavy hole-light hole interaction is further supported by
one-band local-spin-density functional calculations, which show that Coulomb
interactions do not induce any incomplete hole shell filling and therefore
cannot account for the experimental magnetic field dispersion.Comment: 5 pages with 3 figures and one table. The paper has been submitted to
Phys.Rev.
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