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The optical and electronic properties of semiconductor nanomaterials have long attracted significant interest due to the strong absorption and tunable spectra caused by quantum confinement. These materials have potential applications ranging from solar energy conversion and lighting to single photon sources and quantum computing. However, to realize any of these applications the role of the atomistic detail of these materials cannot be ignored. Understanding role of defects, traps, and structural distortion on the excited states of these materials remains a great challenge for modern computational science. Semiemperical pseudopotential models represent the leading way to understand the complexity of nanoscale systems in atomistic detail. In this dissertation we expand the applicability of these models to new materials where additional effects, like strong spin-orbit coupling must be considered. We also use these methods to help examine the dynamics of excited states in these nanomaterials, revealing the crucial roles of defects, distortions, and traps.We develop a formulation of the semiempirical pseudopotential method that includes the effects of spin-orbit coupling and other nonlocal terms in the potential. By using a separable form of these non-local terms we maintain a favorable computational scaling and thus keep the ability to investigate nanomaterials of experimentally relevant sizes. We apply this method to lead halide perovskite nanocrystals (NCs), promising materials for solar energy conversion that are known for their strong spin-orbit coupling. The atomistic study of these systems allows for an understanding of how distortion of the NC structure impacted the exciton fine structure, determining that contrary to some suggestions the ground state exciton is a dark state. The results of atomistic electronic structure methods also aid in developing kinetic models of excited state species in various nanomaterials. The dynamics of the transfer of holes from multi-excitonic II-VI NCs is explored as a competition between transfer, trapping, and non-radiative Auger recombination (AR). Pseudopotential calculations provide crucial insight in the AR rates and how those are impacted by the presence of trapped species. A similar kinetic model describing carrier recombination in few-layer black phosphorous is informed by density functional theory calculations of surface oxygen defects.This dissertation shows both the expansion of the semiemperical pseudopotential method and the application of the method to inform studies of material properties and design principles. The combination of theoretical development and experimental collaboration shows the utility of these models to solve practical problems of broad scientific import. By expanding the applicability of these methods to new materials, these detail atomistic calculations can now be applied to even more experimentally relevant systems.

It has recently been demonstrated that the addition of zinc can enhance the mechanical strength of tricalcium silicates (C3S) upon hydration, but the structure of the main hydration product of cement, calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H), in zinc modified formulations remains unresolved. Here, we combine 29Si DNP-enhanced solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), density functional theory (DFT)-based chemical shift computations, and molecular dynamics (MD) modeling to determine the atomic-level structure of zinc-modified C-S-H. The structure contains two main new silicon species (Q(1,Zn) and Q(2p,Zn)) where zinc substitutes Q(1) silicon species in dimers and bridging Q(2b) silicon sites, respectively. Structures determined as a function of zinc content show that zinc promotes an increase in the dreierketten mean chain lengths., Journal of the American Chemical Society, 144 (50), ISSN:0002-7863, ISSN:1520-5126

With decreasing dimensions and increasing complexity, semiconductor devices are getting more difficult to fabricate. In particular the allowed deposition temperature becomes lower. Amorphous materials, which do not require annealing steps, are therefore becoming more interesting. First principles modelling of amorphous materials is, however, way more complex than modelling crystalline ones. Especially to screen for new materials, a fully ab initio approach is hence too expensive. We take on this challenge by employing a combination of high throughput first principles calculations and artificial intelligence (AI). We construct 4500 atomistic models, each containing 200-atoms, to capture the properties of amorphous phases of primary, X-O, and binary, X-Y-O, metal oxides. For these models, we calculate the relevant properties for a transistor channel. Expanding this exercise to more complex metal oxides would lead to a prohibitively large number of options. We solve this problem by training support vector regression models based on the data generated for the primary and binary oxides to predict the properties of ternary and more complex oxides. By combining the trained models, we construct an objective function that, at its minimum, points to the optimal composition in terms of electronic performances and material stability. After screening a series of objective functions, we identify the Zn-Mg-Al-O metal oxide (Zn and Mg around 40-50 at%, Al below 10 at%) as being the most interesting improvement to the current industry standard a-IGZO for the development of a high charge carrier mobility layer of a thin film transistor compatible with low deposition temperature requirements. It is predicted to combine an improvement in terms of electron mobility and chemical stability with respect to a-IGZO. This method, combining first principles calculated data with AI, is however not restricted to finding new materials for the active layer in a thin film transistor. From a general perspective, this approach can be used for any alloy or compound discovery problem, in which the pivotal material properties can be calculated for, in the order of a thousand, relevant one- and two-element materials.

Two different heat-transport mechanisms are discussed in solids: in crystals, heat carriers propagate and scatter particle-like as described by Peierls' formulation of the Boltzmann transport equation for phonon wavepackets. In glasses, instead, carriers behave wave-like, diffusing via a Zener-like tunneling between quasi-degenerate vibrational eigenstates, as described by the Allen-Feldman equation. Recently, it has been shown that these two conduction mechanisms emerge from a Wigner transport equation, which unifies and extends the Peierls-Boltzmann and Allen-Feldman formulations, allowing to describe also complex crystals where particle-like and wave-like conduction mechanisms coexist. Here, we discuss the theoretical foundations of such transport equation as is derived from the Wigner phase-space formulation of quantum mechanics, elucidating how the interplay between disorder, anharmonicity, and the quantum Bose-Einstein statistics of atomic vibrations determines thermal conductivity. This Wigner formulation argues for a preferential phase convention for the dynamical matrix in the reciprocal Bloch representation and related off-diagonal velocity operator's elements; such convention is the only one yielding a conductivity which is invariant with respect to the non-unique choice of the crystal's unit cell and is size-consistent. We rationalize the conditions determining the crossover from particle-like to wave-like heat conduction, showing that phonons below the Ioffe-Regel limit (i.e. with a mean free path shorter than the interatomic spacing) contribute to heat transport due to their wave-like capability to interfere and tunnel. Finally, we show that the present approach overcomes the failures of the Peierls-Boltzmann formulation for materials with ultralow or glass-like thermal conductivity., Comment: 38 pages, 13 figures

High quality Van der Waals chalcogenides are important for phase change data storage, thermoelectrics, and spintronics. Using a combination of statistical design of experiments and density functional theory, we clarify how the out-of-equilibrium van der Waals epitaxial deposition methods can improve the crystal quality of Sb2Te3 films. We compare films grown by radio frequency sputtering and pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The growth factors that influence the crystal quality for each method are different. For PLD grown films a thin amorphous Sb2Te3 seed layer most significantly influences the crystal quality. In contrast, the crystalline quality of films grown by sputtering is rather sensitive to the deposition temperature and less affected by the presence of a seed layer. This difference is somewhat surprising as both methods are out-of-thermal-equilibrium plasma-based methods. Non-adiabatic quantum molecular dynamics simulations show that this difference originates from the density of excited atoms in the plasma. The PLD plasma is more intense and with higher energy than that used in sputtering, and this increases the electronic temperature of the deposited atoms, which concomitantly increases the adatom diffusion lengths in PLD. In contrast, the adatom diffusivity is dominated by the thermal temperature for sputter grown films. These results explain the wide range of Sb2Te3 and superlattice crystal qualities observed in the literature. These results indicate that, contrary to popular belief, plasma-based deposition methods are suitable for growing high quality crystalline chalcogenides., Comment: 24 pages, 8 figs

We introduce HP, an implementation of density-functional perturbation theory, designed to compute Hubbard parameters (on-site U and inter-site V ) in the framework of DFT+U and DFT+U+V. The code does not require the use of computationally expensive supercells of the traditional linear-response approach; instead, unit cells are used with monochromatic perturbations that significantly reduce the computational cost of determining Hubbard parameters. HP is an open-source software distributed under the terms of the GPL as a component of QUANTUM ESPRESSO. As with other components, HP is optimized to run on a variety of different platforms, from laptops to massively parallel architectures, using native mathematical libraries (LAPACK and FFTW) and a hierarchy of custom parallelization layers built on top of MPI. The effectiveness of the code is showcased by computing Hubbard parameters self-consistently for the phospho-olivine LixMn1/2Fe1/2PO4 (x = 0, 1/2, 1) and by highlighting the accuracy of predictions of the geometry and Li intercalation voltages. Program summaryProgram Title: HP CPC Library link to program files: https://doi .org /10 .17632 /xsbtkpknf7 .1 Licensing provisions: GNU General Public License v 2.0 Programming language: Fortran 95 External routines: HP is a tightly integrated component of the QUANTUM ESPRESSO distribution and requires the standard libraries linked by it: BLAS, LAPACK, FFTW, MPI.Nature of problem: Calculation of Hubbard interaction parameters for DFT+U and DFT+U+V.Solution method: Hubbard parameters are expressed in terms of the inverse response matrices to localized perturbations of the atomic occupations. The response matrices are computed using densityfunctional perturbation theory to first order (linear-response theory) in the reciprocal space, that allows to reconstruct the response to a localized perturbation (obtained from calculations in an appropriately sized supercell) as the superposition of the responses to a series of monochromatic perturbations in a primitive unit cell, thus reducing significantly the computational cost. The response matrices are computed via a self-consistent solution of the static Sternheimer equation, whose implementation does not require the calculation of any virtual states. Pseudopotentials (norm-conserving, ultrasoft, projector augmented wave) are used in conjunction with plane-wave basis sets and periodic boundary conditions. Additional comments including restrictions and unusual features: Local and semi-local exchange-correlation kernels only. Noncollinear spin-polarized formalism is not supported, only collinear spin-polarized or non-spin-polarized cases can be treated. Spin-orbit coupling cannot be used. Calculation of Hund's J is not supported. Multiple Hubbard channels per atom are not supported. The Hubbard manifold can be only constructed on atomic orbitals, both orthogonalized and non-orthogonalized, while Wannier functions (as well as other localized basis sets) are not supported. The linear-response approach we adopt here typically results in Hubbard parameters that are unphysically large for closed shell states [1]. No virtual orbitals are used, nor even calculated.The distribution file of this program can be downloaded from the QUANTUM ESPRESSO website: http:// www.quantum -espresso .org/, and the development version of this program can be downloaded via Git from the GitLab website: https://gitlab .com /QEF /q-e. Interactions with end users of the HP code happen via a mailing-list forum of QUANTUM ESPRESSO: https://www.quantum -espresso .org /forum., Documentation of the HP code is tightly coupled with the code and is done via standard code comments; different subroutines that implement different equations of the DFPT formalism contain references to the two main papers [2,3] describing in detail theory behind the implementation.(c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Many interesting target guest molecules have low symmetry, yet most methods for synthesising hosts result in highly symmetrical capsules. Methods of generating lower symmetry pores are thus required to maximise the binding affinity in host–guest complexes. Herein, we use mixtures of tetraaldehyde building blocks with cyclohexanediamine to access low‐symmetry imine cages. Whether a low‐energy cage is isolated can be correctly predicted from the thermodynamic preference observed in computational models. The stability of the observed structures depends on the geometrical match of the aldehyde building blocks. One bent aldehyde stands out as unable to assemble into high‐symmetry cages‐and the same aldehyde generates low‐symmetry socially self‐sorted cages when combined with a linear aldehyde. We exploit this finding to synthesise a family of low‐symmetry cages containing heteroatoms, illustrating that pores of varying geometries and surface chemistries may be reliably accessed through computational prediction and self‐sorting., A sea of expanding shapes: A combined experimental–computational approach enabled the synthesis of low‐symmetry imine cages from mixtures of tetraaldehyde building blocks. This “social self‐sorting” approach was applied to obtain a family of new cages containing heteroatoms, showing that pores of varying geometries and surface chemistries may be reliably accessed.

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) chemical shifts are a direct probe of local atomic environments and can be used to determine the structure of solid materials. However, the substantial computational cost required to predict accurate chemical shifts is a key bottleneck for NMR crystallography. We recently introduced ShiftML, a machine-learning model of chemical shifts in molecular solids, trained on minimum-energy geometries of materials composed of C, H, N, O, and S that provides rapid chemical shift predictions with density functional theory (DFT) accuracy. Here, we extend the capabilities of ShiftML to predict chemical shifts for both finite temperature structures and more chemically diverse compounds, while retaining the same speed and accuracy. For a benchmark set of 13 molecular solids, we find a root-mean-squared error of 0.47 ppm with respect to experiment for 1H shift predictions (compared to 0.35 ppm for explicit DFT calculations), while reducing the computational cost by over four orders of magnitude., The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 126 (39), ISSN:1932-7455, ISSN:1932-7447

openaire: EC/H2020/686053/EU//CritCat In this study, we looked at the hydrogen evolution reaction on Mg-, Mo-, Fe-, Co-, V-, and Cu-doped Ni3P2 and Ni3P2 + P terminated Ni2P surfaces. The DFT calculated hydrogen adsorption free energy was employed as a predictor of the materials' catalytic HER activity. Our results indicate that doping can substantially improve the catalytic activity of the Ni3P2 terminated surface. In contrast, the Ni3P2 + P terminated one seems to be catalytically active irrespective of the type of doping, including in the absence of doping. Based on our doping energy and adsorption free energy calculations, the most promising dopants are iron and cobalt, whereas copper is less likely to function well as a doping element.

A molecular level understanding of metal/bulk water interface structure is key for a wide range of processes, including aqueous corrosion, which is our focus, but their buried nature makes experimental investigation difficult and we must mainly rely on simulations. We investigate the Mg(0001)/water interface using second generation Car–Parrinello molecular dynamics (MD) to gain structural information, combined with static density functional theory calculations to probe the atomic interactions and electronic structure (e.g., calculating the potential of zero charge). By performing detailed structural analyses of both metal–surface atoms and the near-surface water, we find that, among other insights: (i) water adsorption causes significant surface roughening (the planar distribution for top-layer Mg has two peaks separated by [Formula: see text]), (ii) strongly adsorbed water covers only [Formula: see text] of available surface sites, and (iii) adsorbed water avoids clustering on the surface. Static calculations are used to gain a deeper understanding of the structuring observed in MD. For example, we use an energy decomposition analysis combined with calculated atomic charges to show that adsorbate clustering is unfavorable due to Coulombic repulsion between adsorption site surface atoms. Results are discussed in the context of previous simulations carried out on other metal/water interfaces. The largest differences for the Mg(0001)/water system appear to be the high degree of surface distortion and the minimal difference between the metal work function and metal/water potential of zero charge (at least compared to other interfaces with similar metal–water interaction strengths). The structural information, in this paper, is important for understanding aqueous Mg corrosion, as the Mg(0001)/water interface is the starting point for key reactions. Furthermore, our focus on understanding the driving forces behind this structuring leads to important insights for general metal/water interfaces.

We report on the facile conversion of [Pd-2(mu-Cl)(mu-eta(3)-R-allyl)(NHC)(2)] complexes, which are commonly considered undesirable off-cycle species in cross-coupling reactions, into active [PdCl(mu-Cl)(NHC)](2) pre-catalysts. All reactions proceed under mild conditions (40 degrees C, 1-2 hours in acetone) using inexpensive HCl as both an oxidant and chloride source. DFT calculations were performed to explore the possible mechanism of this transformation, which appears to involve a combination of two different pathways. Moreover this study provides insights into factors favoring and hindering Pd(i) dimer formation undesirable in catalysis.

Electron-phonon ($e$-ph) interactions are pervasive in condensed matter, governing phenomena such as transport, superconductivity, charge-density waves, polarons and metal-insulator transitions. First-principles approaches enable accurate calculations of $e$-ph interactions in a wide range of solids. However, they remain an open challenge in correlated electron systems (CES), where density functional theory often fails to describe the ground state. Therefore reliable $e$-ph calculations remain out of reach for many transition metal oxides, high-temperature superconductors, Mott insulators, planetary materials and multiferroics. Here we show first-principles calculations of $e$-ph interactions in CES, using the framework of Hubbard-corrected density functional theory (DFT+$U$ ) and its linear response extension (DFPT+$U$), which can describe the electronic structure and lattice dynamics of many CES. We showcase the accuracy of this approach for a prototypical Mott system, CoO, carrying out a detailed investigation of its $e$-ph interactions and electron spectral functions. While standard DFPT gives unphysically divergent and short-ranged $e$-ph interactions, DFPT+$U$ is shown to remove the divergences and properly account for the long-range Fr\"ohlich interaction, allowing us to model polaron effects in a Mott insulator. Our work establishes a broadly applicable and affordable approach for quantitative studies of e-ph interactions in CES, a novel theoretical tool to interpret experiments in this broad class of materials., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

Analysis of the band structure of TiS3 single-layers suggests the possibility of changing their physical behaviour by injecting electron carriers. The anisotropy of the valence and conduction bands is explained in terms of their complex orbital composition. The nature of the Fermi surface and Lindhard response function for di erent doping concentrations is studied by means of rstprinciples DFT calculations. It is suggested that for electron doping levels x (number of electrons per unit cell) 0.18-0.30e the system could exhibit incommensurate charge or spin modulations which, however, would keep the metallic state whereas systems doped with smaller x would be 2D metals without any electronic instability. The e ect of spin-orbit coupling in the band dispersion is analysed. The DFT e ective masses are used to study the plasmon spectrum from an e ective low energy model. We nd that this material supports highly anisotropic plasmons, with opposite anisotropy for the electron and hole bands., We thank A Castellanos-Gomez for useful discussions and R Robles for assistance with the calculations. This work has received funding from the European Unions Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) through the ERC Advanced Grant NOVGRAPHENE (GA No. 290846), European Commission under the Graphene Flagship, contract CNECTICT-604391, the Spanish MINECO (through Grants No. FIS2015- 64886-C5-3-P, FIS2015-64886-C5-4-P, FIS2014- 58445-JIN and the Severo Ochoa Centers of Excellence Program under Grants SEV-2013-0295 and SEV-2015- 0496), and the Generalitat de Catalunya (2014SGR301), as well as from the Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid (CAM) MAD2D-CM Program (S2013/MIT-3007).

Solid-state electrolytes for Li-ion batteries are attracting growing interest as they allow building safer batteries, also using lithium-metal anodes. Here, we studied a compound in the lithium superionic conductor (LISICON) family, i.e., Li4-xGe1-xPxO4 (LGPO). Thin films were deposited via pulsed laser deposition, and their electrical properties were compared to those of ceramic pellets. A detailed characterization of their microstructures shows that thin films can be deposited fully crystalline at higher temperatures but also partially amorphous at room temperature. The conductivity is not strongly influenced by the presence of grain boundaries, exposure to air, or lithium deficiencies. First-principles molecular dynamics simulations were employed to calculate the lithium-ion diffusion profile and the conductivity at vario temperatures of the ideal LGPO crystal. Simulations give the upper limit of conductivity for a defect-free crystal, which is in the range of 10(-2) S cm(-1) at 300 degrees C. The ease of thin-film fabrication and room-temperature Li-ion conductivity in the range of a few mu S cm(-1) make LGPO very appealing electrolyte material for thin-film all-solid-state all-oxide microbatteries.

Lattice dynamics in low-dimensional materials and, in particular, the quadratic behaviour of the flexural acoustic modes play a fundamental role in their thermomechanical properties. A first-principles evaluation of these can be very demanding, and can be affected by numerical noise that breaks translational or rotational invariance. In order to overcome these challenges, we study the Gartstein internal-coordinate potential and tune its 13 parameters on the first-principles interatomic force constants for graphene. We show that the resulting potential not only reproduces very well the phonon dispersions of graphene, but also those of carbon nanotubes of any diameter and chirality. The addition of a cubic term allows also to reproduce the dominant anharmonic terms, leading to a very good estimate of the lattice thermal conductivity. Finally, this potential form works very well also for boron nitride, provided it is fitted on the short-range (analytical) part of the interatomic force constants, and augmented thereafter with the long-range dielectric contribution. This consideration underscores how potentials based on short-ranged descriptors should be fit, in polar materials, to the short-range part of the first-principles interactions, and complemented by long-range analytical dielectric models parametrized on the same first-principles calculations.

International audience; Following on from a previous work (Punter et al., IJQC 2019, 119, 23), pseudopotential sets are developed and tested for a variety of sp 2 and sp 3 carbon fragments. These fragments contain only one or two explicit protons and electrons, and make use of non-atom-centered potentials. They are tested with density functional theory calculations in a selection of chemical environments in which several physical characteristics , including orbital and first ionization energies, are found to be well reproduced. They are then employed in the reproduction of molecular absorption spectra for large organic molecules and carbon allotropes, and are found to recreate both absorption and electronic circular dichroism spectra to a high accuracy. They are also found significantly to increase the computational efficiency of time dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) calculations in which they are used.

DNA-stabilized silver clusters (Ag:DNAs) have attracted much attention due to their unique sequence-dependent fluorescence and many potential applications; however, the understandings of their atomic structures and functional properties are still limited, which hamper the further development of the novel nanoclusters. Using the advanced computational methods, we propose three atomistic models for the Ag:DNAs, which all contain a four-electron silver core with a two-row planar shape stabilized by the nitrogen atoms in the DNA. By comparing experimental and time-dependent density functional theory-simulated circular dichroism spectra, we have confirmed that these core structures should commonly exist in the Ag:DNAs. We then analyze the electronic and optical properties of the clusters and discover that the silver to DNA transitions have essential contributions to the chiroptical properties of the clusters.

Metallic transition metal dichalcogenides like tantalum diselenide (TaSe$_{2}$) exhibit exciting behaviors at low temperatures, including the emergence of charge density wave (CDW) states. In this work, density functional theory (DFT) is used to investigate how structural, electronic, and Raman spectral properties of the CDW configuration change as a function of thickness. Such findings highlight the influence of dimensionality change (from 2D to 3D) and van der Waals (vdW) interactions on the system properties. The vdW effect is most strongly present in bulk TaSe$_{2}$ in the spectral range 165 cm$^{-1}$ to 215 cm$^{-1}$. The phonons seen in the experimental Raman spectra are compared with the results calculated from the DFT models as a function of temperature and layer number. The matching of data and calculations substantiates the model's description of the CDW structural formation as a function of thickness, which is shown in depth for 1L through 6L systems. These results highlight the importance of understanding interlayer interactions, which are pervasive in many quantum phenomena involving two-dimensional confinement., 6 figures, 28 pages

In this work, a detailed study is conducted to understand how ligand substitution influences the CO2, and N2 adsorption properties of two highly crystalline sodalite metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) known as Cu-BTT (BTT3 = 1,3,5-benzenetristetrazolate) and Cu-BTTri (BTTri-3 = 1,3,5-benzenetristriazolate). The enthalpy of adsorption and observed adsorption capacities at a given pressure are significantly lower for Cu-BTTri compared to its tetrazole counterpart, Cu-BTT. In situ X-ray and neutron diffraction, which allow visualization of the CO2 and N2 binding sites on the internal surface of Cu-BTTri, provide insights into understanding the subtle differences. As expected, slightly elongated distances between the open Cu2+ sites and surface-bound CO, in Cu-BTTri can be explained by the fact that the triazolate ligand is a better electron donor than the tetrazolate. The more pronounced Jahn-Teller effect in Cu-BTTri leads to weaker guest binding. The results of the aforementioned structural analysis were complemented by the prediction of the binding energies at each CO2 and N2 adsorption site by density functional theory calculations. In addition, variable temperature in situ diffraction measurements shed light on the fine structural changes of the framework and CO2 occupancies at different adsorption sites as a function of temperature. Finally, simulated breakthrough curves obtained for both sodalite MOFs demonstrate the materials' potential performance in dry postcombustion CO2 capture. The simulation, which considers both framework uptake capacity and selectivity, predicts better separation performance for Cu-BTT. The information obtained in this work highlights how ligand substitution can influence adsorption properties and hence provides further insights into the material optimization for important separations.

We present preliminary results obtained with a finite-range two-body pseudopotential complemented with zero-range spin-orbit and density-dependent terms. After discussing the penalty function used to adjust parameters, we discuss predictions for binding energies of spherical nuclei calculated at the mean-field level, and we compare them with those obtained using the standard Gogny D1S finite-range effective interaction., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, contribution to the conference proceedings for INPC 2019 (Glasgow)

We present a derivation of the exact expression for Pulay forces in density-functional theory calculations augmented with extended Hubbard functionals, and arising from the use of orthogonalized atomic orbitals as projectors for the Hubbard manifold. The derivative of the inverse square root of the orbital overlap matrix is obtained as a closed-form solution of the associated Lyapunov (Sylvester) equation. The expression for the resulting contribution to the forces is presented in the framework of ultrasoft pseudopotentials and the projector-augmented-wave method, and using a plane wave basis set. We have benchmarked the present implementation with respect to finite differences of total energies for the case of NiO, finding excellent agreement. Owing to the accuracy of Hubbard-corrected density-functional theory calculations - provided the Hubbard parameters are computed for the manifold under consideration - the present work paves the way for systematic studies of solid-state and molecular transition-metal and rare-earth compounds., Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure

The self-consistent evaluation of Hubbard parameters using linear-response theory is crucial for quantitatively predictive calculations based on Hubbard-corrected density-functional theory. Here, we extend a recently-introduced approach based on density-functional perturbation theory (DFPT) for the calculation of the on-site Hubbard $U$ to also compute the inter-site Hubbard $V$. DFPT allows to reduce significantly computational costs, improve numerical accuracy, and fully automate the calculation of the Hubbard parameters by recasting the linear response of a localized perturbation into an array of monochromatic perturbations that can be calculated in the primitive cell. In addition, here we generalize the entire formalism from norm-conserving to ultrasoft and projector-augmented wave formulations, and to metallic ground states. After benchmarking DFPT against the conventional real-space Hubbard linear response in a supercell, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the present extended Hubbard formulation in determining the equilibrium crystal structure of Li$_x$MnPO$_4$ (x=0,1) and the subtle energetics of Li intercalation., Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures

Materials based on regular π-stacks of planar organic radicals are intensively pursued by virtue of their technologically relevant properties. Yet, these π-stacks are commonly unstable against π-dimerization. In this computational study, we reveal that regular π-stacks of planar dithiazolyl radicals can be rendered stable, in some range of temperatures,viatwo different mechanisms. When the radicals of a π-stack are both longitudinally and latitudinally slipped with respect to each other, the corresponding regular π-stacked configuration is associated with a locally stable minimum in the potential energy surface of the system. Conversely, those regular π-stacks in which radicals are latitudinally slipped with respect to each other are stable as a result of a dynamic interconversion between two degenerate dimerized configurations. The existence of two stabilization mechanisms, which can be traced back to the bonding properties of isolated π-dimers, translates into two different ways of exploiting spin-Peierls-like transitions in switchable dithiazolyl-based materials.