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An efficient first principles approach to calculate X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) and X-ray natural circular dichroism (XNCD) is developed and applied in the near edge region at the K-and L1-edges in solids. Computation of circular dichroism requires precise calculations of X-ray absorption spectra (XAS) for circularly polarized light. For the derivation of the XAS cross section, we used a relativistic description of the photon-electron interaction that results in an additional term in the cross-section that couples the electric dipole operator with an operator σ · (epsilon× r) that we name spin-position. The numerical method relies on pseudopotentials, on the gauge including projected augmented wave method and on a collinear spin relativistic description of the electronic structure. We apply the method to the calculations of K-edge XMCD spectra of ferromagnetic iron, cobalt and nickel and of I L1-edge XNCD spectra of α-LiIO3, a compound with broken inversion symmetry. For XMCD spectra we find that, even if the electric dipole term is the dominant one, the electric quadrupole term is not negligible (8% in amplitude in the case of iron). The term coupling the electric dipole operator with the spin-position operator is significant (28% in amplitude in the case of iron). We obtain a sum-rule relating this new term to the spin magnetic moment of the p-states. In α-LiIO3 we recover the expected angular dependence of the XNCD spectra.

High-energy-resolution-fluorescence-detected X-ray absorption near-edge structure (HERFD-XANES) spectroscopy is shown to be a sensitive tool to investigate the electronic changes of copper complexes induced by geometric distortions caused by the ligand backbone as a model for the entatic state. To fully exploit the information contained in the spectra gained by the high-energy-resolution technique, (time-dependent) density functional theory calculations based on plane-wave and localized orbital basis sets are performed, which in combination allow the complete spectral range from the prepeak to the first resonances above the edge step to be covered. Thus, spectral changes upon oxidation and geometry distortion in the copper N-(1,3-dimethylimidazolidin-2-ylidene)quinolin-8-amine (DMEGqu) complexes [CuI(DMEGqu)2](PF6) and [CuII(DMEGqu)2](OTf)2·MeCN can be accessed.

Department of Chemistry, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USAReceived 20 July 2011, revised 16 September 2011, accepted 26 September 2011Published online 28 December 2011Dedicated to Thomas Frauenheim on the occasion of his 60th birthdayKeywords charge-density wave, electron transport, entropy, in adsorption, nanowire, Peierls transition, Si(111) surface

Rare earth induced silicide phases of submonolayer height and 5 × 2 periodicity on the Si(111) surface are investigated by density functional theory and ab initio thermodynamics. The most stable silicide thin film consists of alternating Si Seiwatz and honeycomb chains aligned along the [1\(\overline{1}\) 0] direction, with rare earth atoms in between. This thermodynamically favored model is characterized by a minor band gap reduction compared to bulk Si and explains nicely the measured scanning tunneling microscopy images.

The effect of oxygen impurities and structural imperfections on the coherent on-chain quantum conductance of poly(3-hexylthiophene) is calculated from first principles by solving the scattering problem for molecular structures obtained within density functional theory. It is found that the conductance drops substantially for polymer kinks with curvature radii smaller than 17 A and rotations in excess of about 60∘. Oxidation of thiophene group carbon atoms drastically reduces the conductance, whereas the oxidation of the molecular sulfur barely changes the coherent transport properties. Also isomer defects in the coupling along the chain direction are of minor importance for the intrachain transmission.

By combining scanning tunneling microscopy with density functional theory it is shown that the Bi(111) surface provides a well-defined incorporation site in the first bilayer that traps highly coordinating atoms such as transition metals (TMs) or noble metals. All deposited atoms assume exactly the same specific sevenfold coordinated subsurface interstitial site while the surface topography remains nearly unchanged. Notably, 3d TMs show a barrier-free incorporation. The observed surface modification by barrier-free subsorption helps to suppress aggregation in clusters. It allows a tuning of the electronic properties not only for the pure Bi(111) surface, but may also be observed for topological insulators formed by substrate-stabilized Bi bilayers. © 2015 American Physical Society. DFG/SFB/616 DFG/SPP/1601 DFG/Pf238/31

The geometry of the polar LiNbO3 (0001) surface is strongly temperature dependent. In this work the surface charge associated to various surface terminations is estimated from first-principles calculations. All stable terminations are found to lower the polarization charge, showing that the surface charge compensation is a major driving force for surface reconstruction.

A numerically efficient methodology that allows for relativistic calculations including spin-orbit coupling for spatially anisotropic potentials is employed to study the energetics and electronic properties of In/Si(111)($4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}1$)/($8\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}2$) nanowires within density-functional theory. For the subtle total energy balance between the metallic In zigzag chain structure observed at room temperature and the insulating In hexagons that form below the critical temperature, scalar-relativistic corrections to the kinetic energy are clearly far more important than the spin-orbit coupling. On the other hand, a relativistic treatment including spin-orbit coupling is required to describe correctly the electronic band structure that shows a large, strongly anisotropic $k$-point-dependent spin splitting of the In-related states at the $X$ point of the surface Brillouin zone. Suitably combined with the metal-insulator transition, the resulting quasi-1D Rashba effect may be used for spin filtering.

The frequency-dependent dielectric function and the second-order polarizability tensor of ferroelectric LiNbO3 are calculated from first principles. The calculations are based on the electronic structure obtained from density-functional theory. The subsequent application of the GW approximation to account for quasiparticle effects and the solution of the Bethe–Salpeter equation yield a dielectric function for the stoichiometric material that slightly overestimates the absorption onset and the oscillator strength in comparison with experimental measurements. Calculations at the level of the independent-particle approximation indicate that these deficiencies are at least partially related to the neglect of intrinsic defects typical for the congruent material. The second-order polarizability calculated within the independent-particle approximation predicts strong nonlinear coefficients for photon energies above 1.5 eV. The comparison with measured data suggests that self-energy effects improve the agreement between experiment and theory. The intrinsic defects of congruent samples reduce the optical nonlinearities, in particular for the 21 and 31 tensor components, further improving the agreement with measured data.

The effect of ferroelectric poling on the water adsorption characteristics of lithium niobate Z-cut surfaces is investigated by ab initio calculations. Thereby we model the adsorption of H2O monomers, small water clusters and water thin films. The adsorption configuration and energy are determined as a function of the surface coverage on both the positive and negative LiNbO3(0001) surfaces. Thereby polarization-dependent adsorption energies, geometries and equilibrium coverages are found. The different affinity of water to the two surfaces is explained in terms of different bonding scenarios as well as the electrostatic interactions between the substrate and the polar molecules. Surface phase diagrams for the Z-cuts in equilibrium with water are predicted from atomistic thermodynamics.

Ab initio calculations of the electronic g-tensor of paramagnetic states at surfaces and solar cells are presented, whereby special emphasis is given onto the influence of relativistic effects. After discussing the numerical requirements for such calculations, we show that for silicon surfaces the g-tensor varies critically with the hydrogen coverage, and provides an exceptionally characteristic property. This holds also in the case of powder spectra where only the isotropic part g av is available from experiments. Extending our calculations onto microcrystalline 3C-SiC, our study explains why sol-gel grown undoped material can serve as an excellent acceptor material for an effective charge separation in organic solar cells: Due to an auto-doping mechanism by surface-induced states it fits excellently into the energy level scheme of this kind of solar cell and has the potential to replace the usually used rather expensive fullerenes.