AA-stacked borophene–graphene bilayer as an anode material for alkali-metal ion batteries with a superhigh capacity

As the lightest two-dimensional material,monolayer borophene exhibits great potential as electrode materials,but it suffers from stability issues in the free-standing form.Here,the striped-borophene and graphene bilayer(sB/Gr)is found to be a high-performance anode material for rechargeable alkali-metal ion batteries.The first-principles results show that all the three alkali-metal atoms,Li,Na,and K,can be strongly adsorbed on sB/Gr with ultra-low diffusion barriers than that on pristine borophene/graphene,indicating good charge-discharge rates.Remarkably,high storage capacities are proposed for LIBs(1880 mA·h/g),NIBs(1648 mA·h/g),and KIBs(470 m A·h/g)with relatively small lattice change rate(<2.9%)in the process of alkali-metal atoms intercalations.These intriguing features of sB/Gr make it an excellent choice for batteries.

Configurations, Electronic Structure and Magnetic Ordering of Small Manganese Clusters

We investigate the configurations, electronic structures, and magnetic ordering of MnN （N = 2-13） clusters based on all-electron density functional theory. The Jahn-Teller effect plays an important role in determining the ground state of certain geometries. The magnetic ordering of the MnN dusters transits from ferromagnetic ordering for the smallest （ N = 2, 3） dusters to a near degeneracy state including ferromagnetic and ferrimagnetic ordering in the vicinity of N = 4-6 and to a clear ferrimagnetic ordering at N = 7 or beyond. N = 6 and 10 are the magic numbers for neutrai MnN （N = 2-13） dusters.

Effects of charge on the structures and spin moments of Nil3 cluster

The structural stability and magnetic properties of the icosahedral Ni13, Ni13^＋1 and Ni13^-1 clusters have been obtained by utilizing all-electron density functional theory with the generalized gradient approximations for the exchange-correlation energy. The calculated results show that the ground states of neutral and charged clusters all favour a D3d structure, a distorted icosahedron, due to the Jahn-Teller effect. The radial distortions caused by doping one electron and by doping one hole are opposite to each other. Doping one electron will result in a 1/2 decrease and doping one hole will result in a 1/2 increase of the total spin. Both increasing interatomic spacing and decreasing coordination will lead to an enhancement of the spin magnetic moments for Nil3 clusters.

Stability and Growth Modes of Ni-C Clusters： A Study based on All-Electron Density Function Theory

Growth modes of the free-standing NiCN （N ≤ 8） and Ni2CN （N ≤ 8） dusters are investigated by the allelectron density functional theory. The results reveal that there are two competing modes for the growth of these clusters： the linear chain and the ring structure without transannular bonds. The lowest-energy geometries of NiCN （N ≤ 8） are the linear chains with the Ni atom at one end, except for NiC2 and NiCT. The Ni2CN （N ≤ 8） clusters all prefer to the linear chains with the two Ni atoms at the two ends. Miilliken population analysis indicates that the total spin of the lowest-energy cluster show significant odd-even alternation. The NiMCN （M = 1,2） clusters with the even N are one and those with the odd-N are zero.

Projectability disentanglement for accurate and automated electronic-structure Hamiltonians

Maximally-localized Wannier functions(MLWFs)are broadly used to characterize the electronic structure of materials.Generally,one can construct MLWFs describing isolated bands(e.g.valence bands of insulators)or entangled bands(e.g.valence and conduction bands of insulators,or metals).Obtaining accurate and compact MLWFs often requires chemical intuition and trial and error,a challenging step even for experienced researchers and a roadblock for high-throughput calculations.Here,we present an automated approach,projectability-disentangled Wannier functions(PDWFs),that constructs MLWFs spanning the occupied bands and their complement for the empty states,providing a tight-binding picture of optimized atomic orbitals in crystals.Key to the algorithm is a projectability measure for each Bloch state onto atomic orbitals,determining if that state should be kept identically,discarded,or mixed into the disentanglement.We showcase the accuracy on a test set of 200 materials,and the reliability by constructing 21,737 Wannier Hamiltonians.

Infrared-active phonons in one-dimensional materials and their spectroscopic signatures

Dimensionality provides a clear fingerprint on the dispersion of infrared-active,polar-optical phonons.For these phonons,the local dipoles parametrized by the Born effective charges drive the LO-TO splitting of bulk materials;this splitting actually breaks down in two-dimensional materials.Here,we develop the theory for one-dimensional(1D)systems—nanowires,nanotubes,and atomic and polymeric chains.Combining an analytical model with the implementation of density-functional perturbation theory in 1D boundary conditions,we show that the dielectric splitting in the dispersion relations collapses as x^(2) log(x)at the zone center.The dielectric properties and the radius of the 1D materials are linked by the present work to these red shifts,opening infrared and Raman characterization avenues.

Surface geometry and magnetism of Eu@C_(60) monolayer on Ag(111)

The surface geometry, electronic structure, and magnetism of Eu@C60 monolayer absorbed on Ag(111) have been investigated within the framework of density functional theory. The Eu@C60 monolayer has been constructed on Ag(111) substrate by one of the hexagon faces of C60 downward and its mirror plane face parallel to Ag(111). The Eu@C60 monolayer induces a recon- struction of the Ag(111) substrate and the perpendicular distance between the Eu@C60 and Ag(111) surface is 2.06 A, being shorter than that between C60 and Ag(lll) surface by 0.05A. There is no chemical bond formed between the Eu@C60 and Ag(111), and only 0.55e transferred from Ag(111) to Eu@C60. A large magnetic moment about 6.80/μB per unit cell is found for Eu@C60/Ag(111) system.

Automated mixing of maximally localized Wannier functions into target manifolds

Maximally localized Wannier functions(MLWFs)are widely used in electronic-structure calculations.We have recently developed automated approaches to generate MLWFs that represent natural tight-binding sets of atomic-like orbitals;these describe accurately both the occupied states and the complementary unoccupied ones.For many applications,it is required to use MLWFs that describe instead certain target groups of bands:the valence or the conduction bands,or correlated manifolds.Here,we start from these tight-binding sets of MLWFs,and mix them using a combination of parallel transport and maximal localization to construct manifold-remixed Wannier functions(MRWFs):these are orthogonal sets of MLWFs that fully and only span desired target submanifolds.The algorithm is simple and robust,and is showcased here in reference applications(silicon,MoS_(2),and SrVO_(3))and in a mid-throughput study of 77 insulators.

Towards high-throughput many-body perturbation theory: efficient algorithms and automated workflows

The automation of ab initio simulations is essential in view of performing high-throughput(HT)computational screenings oriented to the discovery of novel materials with desired physical properties.In this work,we propose algorithms and implementations that are relevant to extend this approach beyond density functional theory(DFT),in order to automate many-body perturbation theory(MBPT)calculations.Notably,an algorithm pursuing the goal of an efficient and robust convergence procedure for GW and BSE simulations is provided,together with its implementation in a fully automated framework.This is accompanied by an automatic GW band interpolation scheme based on maximally localized Wannier functions,aiming at a reduction of the computational burden of quasiparticle band structures while preserving high accuracy.The proposed developments are validated on a set of representative semiconductor and metallic systems.