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A new superstructure of layered pristine LiNiO2 (LNO) was obtained optimizing a large supercell of the 166 space group, the one observed experimentally by XRD, and relaxing both cell parameters and internal positions. The crystal structure shows size and charge disproportionation of the NiO6 octahedra instead of the Jahn-Teller distortion. The decrease of the internal energy obtained with the structural optimization of the supercell relative to the same structure in its primitive unit cell is much larger than the one obtained by relaxing similarly dimensioned supercells of monoclinic symmetry relative to their primitive unit cells, although the monoclinic phase remains more stable. The Ni-O bond length distribution of the new structure agree well with the experiments. Our results show that the choice of the simulation cell is important for determining the energetics of this class of oxide materials, proposed for cathodes in lithium ion batteries (LIBs). We used this new structure as a template for the study of the structural and electronic changes induced by the delithiation and Mn for Ni cation substitution, originating the solid solutions LiNiyMn(1-y)O2 (LNMO). Our results, surprisingly, agree well with the existing experiments and explain observed trends better than previous studies., Comment: Preprint

At low temperatures the interactions between like-oriented steps on a surface are believed to be dominated by elastic repulsions. This belief is based on the results of the classical continuum field theories of elasticity. Electrostatic interactions are also believed to have a role but no theory has yet been developed for their description. In our paper we critically revisit the assumptions of these theories, and found that the ab initio approaches, based on the Born-Oppenheimer distinction between the valence electrons and the ions degrees of freedom, allow to identify distinctly both elastic and electrostatic contributions to the step energy and the step interaction energy. By using ab-initio calculations and specifying to the case of the technologically important (001)surface of GaAs, we show that the elastic interactions are not always repulsive and attractive step interactions between like-oriented steps are also possible. Furthermore, the repulsiveness and attractiveness of the step interactions depend on the step atomic structure.

In this paper we show how to link the electronic structures of two III-V systems, one a direct gap material, GaAs, and the other an indirect gap material, GaP, from their bulks right down to the shape of thin nanowires. GaAs and GaP bulk and nanowire systems are studied in the zincblende and wurtzite structures both free of strain and subjected to biaxial strains perpendicular to the [111]/[0001] direction. We provide an interpretation of the band structure of nanowires, grown along the [111] (zinc-blende structure) and the [0001] (wurtzite structure) directions, in terms of the bulk band structures of the corresponding binary compounds. The procedure reveals the origin of the valence and conduction valleys relevant to determine the nature (direct or indirect) of the band gaps and the kind (direct and pseudodirect) of the valence to conduction transitions. Thus, by calculating only the bulk bands it is possible to describe the behavior of the nanowire bands even for very thin nanowires. The effects on the band structures due to biaxial strain are analogously analyzed, providing for bulk GaP the first results in literature. The role of confinement, and surface relaxation, in determining the nanowire electronic structure of thin nanowires are analyzed separately revealing that the change in the nature of the band gap is due mainly to surface relaxation effects, not confinement. We show that the change for indirect/direct of the gap from the bulk to the 1D systems is mainly due to the competition between the energies of bulk conduction valleys which are differently inuenced by confinement and strain. While the main effect of confinement is to open all gaps it is not necessarily the main cause of the direct/indirect change in the nature of the electronic gap as instead is usually claimed in the literature.

We compare, through first-principles pseudopotential calculations, the structural, electronic and optical properties of different size silicon nanoclusters embedded in a SiO2 crystalline or amorphous matrix, with that of free-standing, hydrogenated and hydroxided silicon nanoclusters of corresponding size and shape. We find that the largest effect on the opto-electronic behavior is due to the amorphization of the embedded nanocluster. In that, the amorphization reduces the fundamental gap while increasing the absorption strength in the visible range. Increasing the nanocluster size does not change substantially this picture but only leads to the reduction of the absorption threshold, following the quantum confinement rule. Finally, through the calculation of the optical absorption spectra both in a indipendent-particle and many-body approach, we show that the effect of local fields is crucial for describing properly the optical behavior of the crystalline case while it is of minor importance for amorphous systems.

In this work we perform a first-principles study of the adsorption properties of an In adatom deposited on 1.75 monolayers (ML) InAs, forming a wetting layer on GaAs$(001)$ with the $\alpha_2 (2\times4)$ or $\beta_2 (2\times4)$ reconstruction. The structural properties of these reconstructions have been studied: we determine the equilibrium geometry of the surfaces and their stability for various growth conditions. We have then carried out a detailed study of the potential energy surface (PES) for an In adsorbate, finding the minima and the saddle points. The main characteristics of the PES and the bonding configurations of the In adatom on the surface are analyzed by comparing with analogous studies reported in the literature, trying to extract the effects due to: (i) the compressive strain to which the InAs adlayer is subjected, (ii) the particular surface reconstruction, and (iii) the wetting layer composition. We found that, in general, stable adsorption sites are located at: (i) locations besides the As in-dimers, (ii) positions bridging two As in-dimers, (iii) between two adjacent ad-dimers (only in $\beta_2$), and (iv) locations bridging two As ad-dimers. We find also other shallower adsorption sites which are more reconstruction specific due to the lower symmetry of the $\alpha_2$ reconstruction compared to the $\beta_2$ reconstruction.

We investigate the electronic structure of the InAs/InP quantum dots using an atomistic pseudopotential method and compare them to those of the InAs/GaAs QDs. We show that even though the InAs/InP and InAs/GaAs dots have the same dot material, their electronic structure differ significantly in certain aspects, especially for holes: (i) The hole levels have a much larger energy spacing in the InAs/InP dots than in the InAs/GaAs dots of corresponding size. (ii) Furthermore, in contrast with the InAs/GaAs dots, where the sizeable hole $p$, $d$ intra-shell level splitting smashes the energy level shell structure, the InAs/InP QDs have a well defined energy level shell structure with small $p$, $d$ level splitting, for holes. (iii) The fundamental exciton energies of the InAs/InP dots are calculated to be around 0.8 eV ($\sim$ 1.55 $\mu$m), about 200 meV lower than those of typical InAs/GaAs QDs, mainly due to the smaller lattice mismatch in the InAs/InP dots. (iii) The widths of the exciton $P$ shell and $D$ shell are much narrower in the InAs/InP dots than in the InAs/GaAs dots. (iv) The InAs/GaAs and InAs/InP dots have a reversed light polarization anisotropy along the [100] and [1$\bar{1}$0] directions.

We show that the optical and electronic properties of nanocrystalline silicon can be efficiently tuned using impurity doping. In particular, we give evidence, by means of ab-initio calculations, that by properly controlling the doping with either one or two atomic species, a significant modification of both the absorption and the emission of light can be achieved. We have considered impurities, either boron or phosphorous (doping) or both (codoping), located at different substitutional sites of silicon nanocrystals with size ranging from 1.1 nm to 1.8 nm in diameter. We have found that the codoped nanocrystals have the lowest impurity formation energies when the two impurities occupy nearest neighbor sites near the surface. In addition, such systems present band-edge states localized on the impurities giving rise to a red-shift of the absorption thresholds with respect to that of undoped nanocrystals. Our detailed theoretical analysis shows that the creation of an electron-hole pair due to light absorption determines a geometry distortion that in turn results in a Stokes shift between adsorption and emission spectra. In order to give a deeper insight in this effect, in one case we have calculated the absorption and emission spectra going beyond the single-particle approach showing the important role played by many-body effects. The entire set of results we have collected in this work give a strong indication that with the doping it is possible to tune the optical properties of silicon nanocrystals., Comment: 14 pages 19 figures

The absorption and emission spectra of silicon nanocrystals up to 1 nm diameter including geometry optimization and the many-body effects induced by the creation of an electron-hole pair have been calculated within a first-principles framework. Starting from hydrogenated silicon clusters of different size, different Si/O bonding at the cluster surface have been considered. We found that the presence of a Si-O-Si bridge bond originates significative excitonic luminescence features in the visible range that are in fair agreement with the experimental outcomes., Comment: 12 pages 4 figures