The Urbach tail in silica glass from first principles

We present density-functional theory calculations of the optical absorption spectra of silica glass for temperatures up to 2400 K. The calculated spectra exhibit exponential tails near the fundamental absorption edge that follow the Urbach rule, in good agreement with experiments. We also discuss the accuracy of our results by comparing to hybrid exchange correlation functionals. By deriving a simple relationship between the exponential tails of the absorption coefficient and the electronic density-of-states, we establish a direct link between the photoemission and the absorption spectra near the absorption edge. This relationship is subsequently employed to determine the lower bound to the Urbach frequency regime. Most interestingly, in this frequency interval, the optical absorption is Poisson distributed with very large statistical fluctuations. Finally, We determine the upper bound to the Urbach frequency regime by identifying the frequency at which transition to Poisson distribution takes place.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Shock Wave-Induced Damage of a Protein by Void Collapse

In this study, we report on a series of molecular dynamics simulations that were used to examine the effects of shock waves on a membrane-bound ion channel. A planar shock wave was found to compress the ion channel upon impact, but the protein geometry resembles the crystal structure as soon as the solvent density begins to dissipate. When a void was placed in close proximity to the membrane, the shock wave proved to be more destructive to the protein due to formation of a nanojet that results from the asymmetric collapse of the void. The nanojet was able to cause significant structural changes to the protein even at low piston velocities that are not able to directly cause poration of the membrane

Ammonium salicylate: a synchrotron study

The structure of the title salt, NH4 +·C7H5O3 −, is stabilized by substantial hydrogen bonding between ammonium cations and salicylate anions that links the components into a two-dimensional array

Electronic structure of aqueous solutions: Bridging the gap between theory and experiments

Predicting the electronic properties of aqueous liquids has been a long-standing challenge for quantum mechanical methods. However, it is a crucial step in understanding and predicting the key role played by aqueous solutions and electrolytes in a wide variety of emerging energy and environmental technologies, including battery and photoelectrochemical cell design. We propose an efficient and accurate approach to predict the electronic properties of aqueous solutions, on the basis of the combination of first-principles methods and experimental validation using state-of-the-art spectroscopic measurements. We present results of the photoelectron spectra of a broad range of solvated ions, showing that first-principles molecular dynamics simulations and electronic structure calculations using dielectric hybrid functionals provide a quantitative description of the electronic properties of the solvent and solutes, including excitation energies. The proposed computational framework is general and applicable to other liquids, thereby offering great promise in understanding and engineering solutions and liquid electrolytes for a variety of important energy technologies

Multiphase equation of state for carbon addressing high pressures and temperatures

We present a 5-phase equation of state for elemental carbon which addresses a wide range of density and temperature conditions: 3g/cc 100 000K (both for ρ between 3 and 12 g/cc, with select higher-ρ DFT calculations as well). The liquid free energy model includes an atom-in-jellium approach to account for the effects of ionization due to temperature and pressure in the plasma state, and an ion-thermal model which includes the approach to the ideal gas limit. The precise manner in which the ideal gas limit is reached is greatly constrained by both the highest-temperature DFT data and the path integral data, forcing us to discard an ion-thermal model we had used previously in favor of a new one. Predictions are made for the principal Hugoniot and the room-temperature isotherm, and comparisons are made to recent experimental results.United States. Dept. of Energy (Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344

A quantum fluid of metallic hydrogen suggested by first-principles calculations

It is generally assumed that solid hydrogen will transform into a metallic alkali-like crystal at sufficiently high pressure. However, some theoretical models have also suggested that compressed hydrogen may form an unusual two-component (protons and electrons) metallic fluid at low temperature, or possibly even a zero-temperature liquid ground state. The existence of these new states of matter is conditional on the presence of a maximum in the melting temperature versus pressure curve (the 'melt line'). Previous measurements of the hydrogen melt line up to pressures of 44 GPa have led to controversial conclusions regarding the existence of this maximum. Here we report ab initio calculations that establish the melt line up to 200 GPa. We predict that subtle changes in the intermolecular interactions lead to a decline of the melt line above 90 GPa. The implication is that as solid molecular hydrogen is compressed, it transforms into a low-temperature quantum fluid before becoming a monatomic crystal. The emerging low-temperature phase diagram of hydrogen and its isotopes bears analogies with the familiar phases of 3He and 4He, the only known zero-temperature liquids, but the long-range Coulombic interactions and the large component mass ratio present in hydrogen would ensure dramatically different propertiesComment: See related paper: cond-mat/041040

Size and Shape Distributions of Primary Crystallites in Titania Aggregates

The primary crystallite size of titania powder relates to its properties in a number of applications. Transmission electron microscopy was used in this interlaboratory comparison (ILC) to measure primary crystallite size and shape distributions for a commercial aggregated titania powder. Data of four size descriptors and two shape descriptors were evaluated across nine laboratories. Data repeatability and reproducibility was evaluated by analysis of variance. One-third of the laboratory pairs had similar size descriptor data, but 83% of the pairs had similar aspect ratio data. Scale descriptor distributions were generally unimodal and were well-described by lognormal reference models. Shape descriptor distributions were multi-modal but data visualization plots demonstrated that the Weibull distribution was preferred to the normal distribution. For the equivalent circular diameter size descriptor, measurement uncertainties of the lognormal distribution scale and width parameters were 9.5% and 22%, respectively. For the aspect ratio shape descriptor, the measurement uncertainties of the Weibull distribution scale and width parameters were 7.0% and 26%, respectively. Both measurement uncertainty estimates and data visualizations should be used to analyze size and shape distributions of particles on the nanoscale