Related papers: Stability of hydrogenated group-IV nanostructures:…
To understand the crystal structure of n-diamond, a hydrogen-doped (H-doped) diamond model has been investigated using first principles calculations. In particular, hydrogen concentration dependent elastic constants and lattice parameters…
The theoretical formalism of the local density approximation (LDA) to density functional theory (DFT) has been used to study the electronic and geometric structures of SimCn (1<=m, n<=4;n<=m) clusters. An all electron 6-311++G** basis set…
The structural and electronic properties of the hydrides of silicene and germanene have been studied using ab initio calculations. The trend for the M-H (M=C, Si, Ge) bond lengths, and corresponding bond energies, is consistent with the…
We demonstrate a new approach for engineering group IV semiconductor-based quantum photonic structures containing negatively charged silicon-vacancy (SiV$^-$) color centers in diamond as quantum emitters. Hybrid SiC/diamond structures are…
Isolated hydrogen and hydrogen pairs in bulk diamond matrix have been studied using density functional theory calculations. The electronic structure and stability of isolated and paired hydrogen defects are investigated at different…
This article presents a brief review of the nanoscale free-electron model, which provides a continuum description of metal nanostructures. It is argued that surface and quantum-size effects are the two dominant factors in the energetics of…
Using first-principles density functional theory calculations, we investigate a family of stable two-dimensional crystals with chemical formula $A_2B_2$, where $A$ and $B$ belong to groups IV and V, respectively ($A$ = C, Si, Ge, Sn, Pb;…
Sodium orthosilicates Na2MSiO4 (M denotes transition metals) have attracted much attention due to the possibility of exchanging two electrons per formula unit. In this work, we report a group of sodium iron orthosilicates Na2FeSiO4, the…
Monte Carlo simulations, supplemented by ab initio calculations, shed light into the energetics and thermodynamic stability of nanostructured amorphous carbon. The interaction of the embedded nanocrystals with the host amorphous matrix is…
The unusual structural stability of gold nanowires at large separations of gold atoms is explained from first-principles quantum mechanical calculations. We show that undetected light atoms, in particular hydrogen, stabilize the…
In order to control and tailor the properties of nanodots, it is essential to separate the effects of quantum confinement from those due to the surface, and to gain insight into the influence of preparation conditions on the dot physical…
In the present paper, we investigate the structural, thermodynamic, dynamic, elastic, and electronic properties of doped 2D diamond C$_4$X$_2$ (X = B or N) nanosheets in both AA$'$A$''$ and ABC stacking configurations, by first-principles…
Superstructures of cubic and hexagonal diamonds (h- and c-diamond) comprising a family of stable diamond-like $sp^3$ hybridized novel carbon allotropes are proposed, which are referred to as U$_n$-carbon where $n \geq 2$ denotes the number…
The metastable hexagonal-diamond phase of Si and Ge (and of SiGe alloys) displays superior optical properties with respect to the cubic-diamond one. The latter is the most stable and popular one: growing hexagonal-diamond Si or Ge without…
The existence of polyexcitons, the $N$-body complexes of excitons for $N > 2$ in 3D bulk systems, has been controversial for more than 40 years since its first theoretical suggestion. We investigated the stability of fundamental excitonic…
Point defects in semiconductors are becoming central to quantum technologies. They can be used as spin qubits interfacing with photons, which are fundamental for building quantum networks. Currently, the most prominent quantum defect in…
The stability of atomic intercalated boron nitride K4 crystal structures, XBN (X=H, Li, Be, B, C, N, O, F, Na, Mg, Al, Si, P, S, Cl, K, Ca, Ga, Ge, As, Se, Br, Rb or Sr) is evaluated by the geometric optimization and frozen phonon…
Optically active defect centers in diamond are of considerable interest, and ab initio calculations have provided valuable insight into the physics of these systems. Candidate structures for the Xe center in diamond, for which little…
The search or design of silicon nanostructures similar to their carbon analogues has attracted great interest recently. In this work, density functional calculations are performed to systematically study a series of finite and infinite…
The nanostructure of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a Si:H) is studied by a combination of small-angle X-ray (SAXS) and neutron scattering (SANS) with a spatial resolution of 0.8 nm. The a-Si:H materials were deposited using a range of…