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The molecular triangular lattice system, beta'-EtMe3Sb[Pd(dmit)2]2, is considered as a candidate material for the quantum spin liquid (QSL) state, although ongoing debates arise from recent controversial results. Here, the results of electron spin resonance (ESR) and muon spin relaxation (muSR) measurements on beta'-EtMe3Sb[Pd(dmit)2]2 are presented. Both results indicate characteristic behaviors related to quasi-one-dimensional (q1D) spin dynamics, whereas the direction of anisotropy found in ESR is in contradiction with previous theories. We succeed in interpreting the experiments by combining density-functional theory calculations and analysis of the effective model taking into account the multi-orbital nature of the system. While the QSL-like origin of beta'-EtMe3Sb[Pd(dmit)2]2 was initially attributed to the magnetic frustration of the triangular lattice, it appears that the primary origin is a 1D spin liquid resulting from the dimensional reduction effect., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

Electronic properties of molecular conductors exhibiting antiferromagnetic (AFM) spin order and charge order (CO) owing to electron correlation are studied using first-principles density functional theory calculations. We investigate two systems, a quasi-two-dimensional Mott insulator $\beta^\prime$-(BEDT-TTF)$_{2}$ICl$_{2}$ with an AFM ground state, and several members of quasi-one-dimensional (TMTTF)$_2$$X$ showing CO. The stabilities of the AFM and CO states are compared between the use of a standard exchange-correlation functional based on the generalized gradient approximation and that of a range-separated hybrid functional; we find that the latter describes these states better. For $\beta^\prime$-(BEDT-TTF)$_{2}$ICl$_{2}$, the AFM order is much stabilized with a wider band gap. For (TMTTF)$_2$$X$, only by using the hybrid functional, the AFM insulating state is realized and the CO states coexisting with AFM order are stable under structural optimization, whose stability among different \textit{X} shows the tendency consistent with experiments.

The Seebeck coefficient is examined for two-dimensional Dirac electrons in the three-quarter filled organic conductor alpha-(BEDT-TTF)_2I_3 under hydrostatic pressure, where the Seebeck coefficient is proportional to the ratio of the thermoelectric conductivity to the electrical conductivity. We present an improved tight-binding model in two dimensions with transfer energies determined from first-principles density functional theory calculations with an experimentally determined crystal structure. The temperatutre dependence of the Seebeck coefficient is calculated by adding impurity and electron-phonon scatterings. Noting a zero-gap state due to the Dirac cone, which results in a competition from contributions between the conduction and valence bands, we show positive S_x and S_y at finite temperatures and analyze them in terms of spectral conductivity. The relevance of the calculated S_x (perpendicular to the molecular stacking axis) to the experiment is discussed., Comment: 7 pages,12 figures

We present a combined experimental and theoretical study on the quasi-one-dimensional organic conductor (TMTTF)$_2$PF$_6$, and elucidate the variation of its physical properties under pressure. We fully resolve the crystal structure by single crystal x-ray diffraction measurements using a diamond anvil cell up to 8 GPa, and based on the structural data, we perform first-principles density-functional theory calculations and derive the $ab$ $initio$ extended Hubbard-type Hamiltonians. Furthermore, we compare the behavior of the resistivity measured up to 3 GPa using a BeCu clamp-type cell and the ground state properties of the obtained model numerically calculated by the many-variable variational Monte Carlo method. Our main findings are as follows: i) The crystal was rapidly compressed up to about 3 GPa where the volume drops to 80% and gradually varies down to 70% at 8 GPa. The transfer integrals increase following such behavior whereas the screened Coulomb interactions decrease, resulting in a drastic reduction of correlation effect. ii) The degree of dimerization in the intrachain transfer integrals, as the result of the decrease in structural dimerization together with the change in the intermolecular configuration, almost disappears above 4 GPa; the interchain transfer integrals also show characteristic variations under pressure. iii) The results of identifying the characteristic temperatures in the resistivity and the charge and spin orderings in the calculations show an overall agreement: The charge ordering sensitively becomes unstable above 1 GPa, while the spin ordering survives up to higher pressures. These results shed light on the similarities and differences between applying external pressure and substituting the chemical species (chemical pressure)., Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures

An $ab$ $initio$ investigation of the family of molecular compounds TM$_2$$X$ is conducted, where TM is either TMTSF or TMTTF and $X$ takes centrosymmetric monovalent anions. By deriving the extended Hubbard-type Hamiltonians from first-principles band calculations and evaluating not only the intermolecular transfer integrals but also the Coulomb parameters, we discuss their material dependence in the unified phase diagram. Furthermore, we apply the many-variable variational Monte Carlo method to accurately determine the symmetry-breaking phase transitions, and show the development of the charge and spin orderings. We show that the material-dependent parameter can be taken as the correlation effect, represented by the value of the screened on-site Coulomb interaction $U$ relative to the intrachain transfer integrals, for the comprehensive understanding of the spin and charge ordering in this system., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, and 2 tables

The origin of the phase stability of 18$R$ Mg-Zn-Y alloys with a long-period stacking order (LPSO) is studied using first-principles calculations. We calculate the heat of formation as a function of the number of Zn vacancies to discuss the role of Zn atoms. The calculated convex hull indicates that the Zn atoms in the LPSO alloys are stable even if they number about half of the Y atoms. The bonding state with Zn $p$ orbitals leads to the stability of the LPSO structure because the partial density of states of Mg nearest to the solute cluster forms a valley structure.

The molecular solids $\beta^\prime$-$X$[Pd(dmit)$_2$]$_2$ (where $X$ represents a cation) are typical compounds whose electronic structures are described by single-orbital Hubbard-type Hamiltonians with geometrical frustration. Using the $ab$ $initio$ downfolding method, we derive the low-energy effective Hamiltonians for $\beta^\prime$-$X$[Pd(dmit)$_2$]$_2$ with available room- and low-temperature structures. We find that the amplitudes of the Coulomb interactions and the anisotropy of the hopping parameters in the effective Hamiltonians are sensitive to the changes in the lattice constants induced by lowering the temperature. The obtained effective Hamiltonians are analyzed using the exact diagonalization method with the boundary-condition average. We find that a significant reduction of the antiferromagnetic ordered moment occurs in the effective Hamiltonian of $\beta^\prime$-EtMe$_3$Sb[Pd(dmit)$_2$]$_2$ with the low-temperature structure. The reduction is consistent with the quantum spin liquid behavior observed in experiments. The comprehensive derivations of the effective Hamiltonians and exact-diagonalization analyses of them will clarify the microscopic origins of the exotic quantum states of matter found in $\beta^\prime$-$X$[Pd(dmit)$_2$]$_2$ such as the quantum spin liquid behavior., Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, 1 table

Effect of spin-orbit coupling (SOC) on Dirac electrons in the organic conductor $\alpha$-(BETS)$_2$I$_3$ [BETS = bis(ethylenedithio)tetraselenafulvalene] has been examined by calculating electric conductivity and spin magnetic susceptibility. A tight-binding (TB) model with real and imaginary transfer energies is derived using first-principles density-functional theory method. The conductivity without the SOC depends on both anisotropies of the velocity of the Dirac cone and the tiling of the cone. Such conductivity is suppressed by the SOC, which gives rise to the imaginary part of the transfer energy. Due to the SOC, we find at low temperatures that the reduction of the conductivity becomes large and that the anisotropy of the conductivity is reduced. A nearly constant conductivity at high temperatures is obtained by an electron--phonon (e--p) scattering. Further, the property of the Dirac cone is examined for the spin susceptibility, which is mainly determined by the density of states (DOS). The result is compared with the case of the organic conductor $\alpha$-(BEDT-TTF)$_2$I$_3$ [BEDT-TTF=bis(ethylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene], which provides the Dirac cone without the SOC. The relevance to experiments is discussed., Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2009.14594

A class of Fe-Mn-Si-based alloys exhibits a reversible martensitic transformation between the $\gamma$ phase with a face-centered cubic~(fcc) structure and an $\epsilon$ phase with a hexagonal close-packed (hcp) structure. During the deformation-induced $\gamma$--$\epsilon$ transformation, we identified a phase that is different from the $\epsilon$ phase. In this new phase, the electron diffraction spots are located at the 1/3 positions that correspond to the $\{$0002$\}$ plane of the $\epsilon$ (hcp) phase with 2H structure, which suggests long-period stacking order (LPSO). To understand the stacking pattern and explore the possible existence of an LPSO phase as an intermediate between the $\gamma$ and $\epsilon$ phases, the phase stability of various structural polytypes of iron was examined using first-principles calculations with a spin-polarized form of the generalized gradient approximation in density functional theory. We found that an antiferromagnetic ordered 6H$_2$ structure is the most stable among the candidate LPSO structures and is energetically close to the $\epsilon$ phase, which suggests that the observed LPSO-like phase adopts the 6H$_2$ structure. Furthermore, we determined that the phase stability can be attributed to the valley depth in the density of states, close to the Fermi level.

We employed first-principles density-functional theory (DFT) calculations to characterize Dirac electrons in quasi-two-dimensional molecular conductor $\alpha$-(BETS)$_2$I$_3$ [= $\alpha$-(BEDT-TSeF)$_2$I$_3$] at a low temperature of 30K. We provide a tight-binding model with intermolecular transfer energies evaluated from maximally localized Wannier functions, where the number of relevant transfer integrals is relatively large due to the delocalized character of Se $p$ orbitals. The spin-orbit coupling gives rise to an exotic insulating state with an indirect band gap of about 2 meV. We analyzed the energy spectrum with a Dirac cone close to the Fermi level to develop an effective Hamiltonian with site-potentials, which reproduces the spectrum obtained by the DFT band structure., Comment: The manuscript has been accepted for publication in the European Physical Journal B on Dec. 15th, 2020

We investigated the precise crystal structures and electronic states in a quasi-two-dimensional molecular conductor ${\alpha}$-(BETS)$_2$I$_3$ at ambient pressure. The electronic resistivity of this molecular solid shows metal-to-insulator (MI) crossover at $T_{MI}$=50 K. Our x-ray diffraction and $^{13}$C nuclear magnetic resonance experiments revealed that ${\alpha}$-(BETS)$_2$I$_3$ maintains the inversion symmetry below $T_{MI}$. First-principles calculations found a pair of anisotropic Dirac cones at a general k-point, with the degenerate contact points at the Fermi level. The origin of the insulating state in this system is a small energy gap of ~2 meV opened by the spin-orbit interaction. The Z$_2$ topological invariants indicate that this system is a weak topological insulator. Our results suggest that ${\alpha}$-(BETS)$_2$I$_3$ is a promising material for studying the bulk Dirac electron system in two dimensions., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures + Supplemental Material

We systematically derive low-energy effective Hamiltonians for molecular solids $\beta^\prime$-$X$[Pd(dmit)$_{2}$]$_{2}$ ($X$ represents a cation) using ab initio density functional theory calculations and clarify how the cation controls the inter-dimer transfer integrals and the interaction parameters. The effective models are solved using the exact diagonalization method and the antiferromagnetic ordered moment is shown to be significantly suppressed around the spin-liquid candidate of $X$=EtMe$_{3}$Sb, which is reported in experiments. We also show that both the geometrical frustration and the off-site interactions play essential roles in the suppression of antiferromagnetic ordering. This systematic derivation and analysis of the low-energy effective Hamiltonians offer a firm basis to clarify the nature of the quantum spin liquid found in $\beta^\prime$-EtMe$_{3}$Sb[Pd(dmit)$_{2}$]$_{2}$., Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, 1 table

We study the electronic and structural properties of the low-temperature ordered phase of hydrogen-bonded molecular conductors, $\kappa$-D$_3$(Cat-EDT-TTF)$_2$ and its selenium-substituted analog $\kappa$-D$_3$(Cat-EDT-ST)$_2$, by means of first-principles density functional theory~(DFT) calculations. In these compounds, the charge ordering in the $\pi$-electron system is coupled with the ordering of the displacements in the deuteriums forming the hydrogen-bond, equally shared by two oxygens in the high-temperature phase. While the structural optimization within the standard DFT method based on the generalized gradient approximation fails to reproduce the structural stability of the charge-ordered (CO) phase, we show that a hybrid functional of Heyd, Scuseria, and Ernzerhof can reproduce structural characters of the CO phase, owing to the more localized nature of the wave functions. Furthermore, using the ability of the hybrid functional to predict the electronic and structural properties, we find a stable noncentrosymmetric CO phase with another pattern of deuterium ordering., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures

Nodal line in single-component molecular conductor [Pd(dddt)_2] has been examined to understand the tilted Dirac cone on the non-coplanar loop. In the previous work [J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 87, 113701 (2018)], the velocity of the cone was calculated at respective Dirac points on the nodal loop based on our first-principles band structure calculations, which was a new method to derive an effective Hamiltonian with a 2 x 2 matrix. However, the Dirac cones on the nodal line are fully reproduced only at symmetric points. In the present paper, we show that our improved method well reproduces reasonable behaviors of all the Dirac cones and a very small energy dispersion of 6~meV among the Dirac points. The variation of velocities along the nodal line are shown by using principal axes of the gap function between the conduction and valence bands. Further, the density of states close to the chemical potential and orbital magnetic susceptibility are calculated using such an effective Hamiltonian., Comment: 9pages, 9figures

Using first-principles density-functional theory calculations, we obtain the non-coplanar nodal loop for a single-component molecular conductor [Pd(dddt)$_2$] consisting of HOMO and LUMO with different parity. Focusing on two typical Dirac points, we present a model of an effective 2 $\times$ 2 matrix Hamiltonian in terms of two kinds of velocities associated with the nodal line. The base of the model is taken as HOMO and LUMO on each Dirac point, where two band energies degenerate and the off diagonal matrix element vanishes. The present model, which reasonably describes the Dirac cone in accordance with the first-principles calculation, provides a new method of analyzing electronic states of a topological nodal line semimetal., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

Electronic properties of quasi-two-dimensional molecular conductors $X$[Pd(dmit)$_2$]$_2$ are studied theoretically. We construct an effective model based on the fragment molecular orbital scheme developed recently, which can describe the multi-orbital degree of freedom in this system. The tight-binding parameters for a series of $\beta'$-type compounds with different cations $X$ are evaluated by fitting to first-principles band calculations. We find that the transfer integrals within the dimers of Pd(dmit)$_2$ molecules, along the intramolecular and intermolecular bonds including the diagonal ones, are the same order, leading to hybridization between different molecular orbitals. This results in charge disproportionation within each molecule, as seen in our previous ab initio study [T. Tsumuraya et al, J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 82, 033709 (2013)], and also to a revised picture of an effective dimer model. Furthermore, we discuss broken-symmetry insulating states triggered by interaction effects, which show characteristic features owing to the multi-orbital nature. The on-site Coulomb interaction induces antiferromagnetic states with intramolecular antiparallel spin pattern, while electron-lattice couplings stabilize non-magnetic charge-lattice ordered states where two kinds of dimers with different charge occupation arrange periodically. These states showing different spatial patterns compete with each other as well as with the paramagnetic metallic state., Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures

We theoretically study hydrogen-bonded molecular conductors synthesized recently, $\kappa$-H$_3$(Cat-EDT-TTF)$_2$ and its diselena analog, $\kappa$-H$_3$(Cat-EDT-ST)$_2$, by first-principles density-functional theory calculations. In these crystals, two H(Cat-EDT-TTF/ST) units share a hydrogen atom with a short O--H--O hydrogen bond. The calculated band structure near the Fermi level shows a quasi-two-dimensional character, with a rather large interlayer dispersion due to the absence of insulating layers in contrast with conventional molecular conductors. We discuss effective low-energy models based on H(Cat-EDT-TTF/ST) units and its dimers, respectively, where the microscopic character of the orbitals composing them are analyzed. Furthermore, we find a stable structure which is different from the experimentally determined structure, where the shared hydrogen atom becomes localized to one of the oxygen atoms, in which charge disproportionation between the two types of H(Cat-EDT-TTF) units is associated. The calculated potential energy surface for the H atom is very shallow near the minimum points, therefore the probability of the H atom can be delocalized between the two O atoms., Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures

The electronic structure of an isostructural series of molecular conductors, {\beta}'-X[Pd(dmit)_2]_2 is systematically studied by a first-principles method based on the density-functional theory. The calculated band structures are fitted to the tight-binding model based on Pd(dmit)_2 dimers on the triangular lattice. We find systematic variation in the anisotropy of the transfer integrals along the three directions of the triangular lattice taking different values. The transfer integral along the face-to-face stacking direction of Pd(dmit)_2 dimers is always the largest. Around the quantum spin liquid, X = EtMe_3Sb, the other two transfer integrals become comparable. We also report sensible differences in the distribution of wavefunctions near the Fermi level between the two dmit ligands of the Pd(dmit)_2 molecule., Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures