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Using spin-density functional theory we investigated various possible structures of the hematite (0001) surface. Depending on the ambient oxygen partial pressure, two geometries are found to be particularly stable under thermal equilibrium:…
Using density-functional theory in combination with a thermodynamic formalism we calculate the relative stability of various structural models of the polar O-terminated (000-1)-O surface of ZnO. Model surfaces with different concentrations…
Using density-functional theory (DFT) we calculate the Gibbs free energy to determine the lowest-energy structure of a RuO_2(110) surface in thermodynamic equilibrium with an oxygen-rich environment. The traditionally assumed stoichiometric…
We derive a formula, useful for first-principles calculations, which relates the free energy of an oxide/metal interface to the free energies of surfaces and the work of separation of the interface. We distinguish the latter {\it…
We report on a computational study of the clean and oxygen-covered Rh(110) surface, based on density-functional theory within the local-density approximation. We have used plane-wave basis sets and Vanderbilt ultra-soft pseudopotentials.…
Hydrogenation of graphene on the \alpha-quartz (0001) SiO_2 substrate is studied, considering different surface terminations in order to take into account the amorphic nature of the material. Our ab initio calculations show that the…
We propose, based on ab initio calculations, that the ground state (001) surface of $\alpha$-Ga should be covered by two layers of GaIII, a denser phase which is stable in the bulk only at high pressure and temperature. We discuss how this…
The electronic structure and thermodynamic stability of tetragonal $\rm{BiFeO_3}$(001) surfaces have been investigated using density functional theory. In this work, four different structures having different lattice constants with two…
To help provide insight into the remarkable catalytic behavior of the oxygen/silver system for heterogeneous oxidation reactions, purely sub-surface oxygen, and structures involving both on-surface and sub-surface oxygen, as well as…
Realistic oxide materials are often semiconductors, in particular at elevated temperatures, and their surfaces contain undercoordiated atoms at structural defects such as steps and corners. Using hybrid density-functional theory and ab…
Iron oxides are among the most abundant compounds on Earth and have consequently been studied and used extensively in industrial processes. Despite these efforts, concrete understanding of some of their surface phase structures has remained…
Alumina (Al$_{2}$O$_{3}$) is a key material for thin-film growth and heterogeneous catalysis, where the atomic surface structure critically impacts performance. Using noncontact atomic force microscopy (nc-AFM) combined with density…
We present a first-principles atomistic thermodynamics framework to describe the structure, composition and segregation profile of an alloy surface in contact with a (reactive) environment. The method is illustrated with the application to…
Surface diffusion on metal oxides is key in many areas of materials technology, yet it has been scarcely explored at the atomic scale. This work provides phenomenological insights from scanning tunneling microscopy on the link between…
Silver chromate ($\mathrm{Ag_{2}CrO_{4}}$) has attracted considerable attention in recent years due to its promising photocatalytic performance, which strongly depends on the crystallographic orientation of its exposed surfaces. A detailed…
Using density-functional theory we assess the stability of bulk and surface oxides of the late 4d transition metals in a ``constrained equilibrium'' with a gas phase formed of O2 and CO. While the stability range of the most stable bulk…
The (111), (110), and (001) surfaces properties of PuO2 are studied by using density-functional theory+U method. The total-energy static calculations determine the relative order of stability for low-index PuO2 surfaces, namely,…
Oxygen vacancies at the SnO2(110) and (101) surface and subsurface sites have been studied in the framework of density functional theory by using both all-electron Gaussian and pseudopotential plane-wave methods. The all-electron…
Investigating atom-surface interactions is the key to an in-depth understanding of chemical processes at interfaces, which are of central importance in many fields -- from heterogeneous catalysis to corrosion. In this work, we present a…
The adsorption of oxygen on the Ag(001) is investigated by means of density functional techniques. Starting from a characterization of the clean silver surfaces oxygen adsorption in several modifications (molecularly, on-surface,…