Publications
97 results found
Skylaris C-K, Haynes PD, Mostofi AA, et al., 2020, Implementation of linear-scaling plane wave density functional theory on parallel computers (vol 243, pg 973, 2006), PHYSICA STATUS SOLIDI B-BASIC SOLID STATE PHYSICS, Vol: 257, ISSN: 0370-1972
Haynes PD, Skylaris C-K, Mostofi AA, et al., 2020, ONETEP: linear-scaling density-functional theory with local orbitals and plane waves (vol 243, pg 2489, 2006), PHYSICA STATUS SOLIDI B-BASIC SOLID STATE PHYSICS, Vol: 257, ISSN: 0370-1972
Goodwin Z, Vitale V, Corsetti F, et al., 2020, Critical role of device geometry for the phase diagram of twisted bilayer graphene, Physical Review B: Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, Vol: 101, Pages: 1-8, ISSN: 1098-0121
The effective interaction between electrons in two-dimensional materials can be modified by their environment, enabling control of electronic correlations and phases. Here, we study the dependence of electronic correlations in twisted bilayer graphene (tBLG) on the separation to the metallic gate(s) in two device configurations. Using an atomistic tight-binding model, we determine the Hubbard parameters of the flat bands as a function of gate separation, taking into account the screening from the metallic gate(s), the dielectric spacer layers, and the tBLG itself. We determine the critical gate separation at which the Hubbard parameters become smaller than the critical value required for a transition from a correlated insulator state to a (semi)metallic phase. We show how this critical gate separation depends on twist angle, doping, and the device configuration. These calculations may help rationalize the reported differences between recent measurements of tBLG's phase diagram and suggest that correlated insulator states can be screened out in devices with thin dielectric layers.
Aghajanian M, Schuler B, Cochrane KA, et al., 2020, Resonant and bound states of charged defects in two-dimensional semiconductors, Physical Review B: Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, Vol: 101, Pages: 1-6, ISSN: 1098-0121
A detailed understanding of charged defects in two-dimensional semiconductors is needed for the development of ultrathin electronic devices. Here, we study negatively charged acceptor impurities in monolayer WS2 using a combination of scanning tunneling spectroscopy and large-scale atomistic electronic structure calculations. We observe several localized defect states of hydrogenic wave function character in the vicinity of the valence band edge. Some of these defect states are bound, while others are resonant. The resonant states result from the multivalley valence band structure of WS2, whereby localized states originating from the secondary valence band maximum at Γ hybridize with continuum states from the primary valence band maximum at K/K′. Resonant states have important consequences for electron transport as they can trap mobile carriers for several tens of picoseconds.
Pizzi G, Vitale V, Arita R, et al., 2020, Wannier90 as a community code: new features and applications, Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol: 32, Pages: 1-25, ISSN: 0953-8984
Wannier90 is an open-source computer program for calculating maximally-localised Wannier functions (MLWFs) from a set of Bloch states. It is interfaced to many widely used electronic-structure codes thanks to its independence from the basis sets representing these Bloch states. In the past few years the development of Wannier90 has transitioned to a community-driven model; this has resulted in a number of new developments that have been recently released in Wannier90 v3.0. In this article we describe these new functionalities, that include the implementation of new features for wannierisation and disentanglement (symmetry-adapted Wannier functions, selectively-localised Wannier functions, selected columns of the density matrix) and the ability to calculate new properties (shift currents and Berry-curvature dipole, and a new interface to many-body perturbation theory); performance improvements, including parallelisation of the core code; enhancements in functionality (support for spinor-valued Wannier functions, more accurate methods to interpolate quantities in the Brillouin zone); improved usability (improved plotting routines, integration with high-throughput automation frameworks), as well as the implementation of modern software engineering practices (unit testing, continuous integration, and automatic source-code documentation). These new features, capabilities, and code development model aim to further sustain and expand the community uptake and range of applicability, that nowadays spans complex and accurate dielectric, electronic, magnetic, optical, topological and transport properties of materials.
Ablitt C, McCay H, Craddock S, et al., 2019, Tolerance factor control of uniaxial negative thermal expansion in a layered perovskite, Chemistry of Materials, Vol: 32, Pages: 605-610, ISSN: 0897-4756
By tuning the tolerance factor, $t$, of the Ruddlesden--Popper oxide Ca$_2$MnO$_4$ through isovalent substitutions we show that the uniaxial coefficient of linear thermal expansion (CLTE) of these systems can be systematically changed through large negative to positive values. High-resolution X-ray diffraction measurements show that the magnitude of uniaxial negative thermal expansion (NTE) increases as $t$ decreases across the stability window of the NTE phase. Transitions to phases with positive thermal expansion (PTE) are found to occur at both the high-$t$ and low-$t$ limits of stability. First-principles calculations demonstrate that reducing $t$ enhances the contribution to thermal expansion from the lowest frequency phonons, which have the character of octahedral tilts and have negative mode Gr\"uneisen parameter components along the NTE axis. By tuning $t$ to the lower edge of the NTE phase stability window, we are hence able to maximise the amplitudes of these vibrations and thereby maximise NTE with a CLTE of -8.1~ppm/K at 125~K. We also illustrate, at the other end of the phase diagram, that an enhancement in compliance of these materials associated with the rotational instability provides another mechanism by which NTE could be yet further enhanced in this and related systems.
Goodwin Z, Corsetti F, Mostofi A, et al., 2019, Attractive electron-electron interactions from internal screening in magic angle twisted bilayer graphene, Physical Review B: Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, Vol: 100, ISSN: 1098-0121
Twisted bilayer graphene (tBLG) has recently emerged as a new platform for studying electroncorrelations, the strength of which can be controlled via the twist angle. Here, we study the effectof internal screening on electron-electron interactions in undoped tBLG. Using the random phaseapproximation, we find that the dielectric response of tBLG drastically increases near the magicangle and is highly twist-angle dependent. As a consequence of the abrupt change of the Fermivelocity as a function of wave vector, the screened interaction in real space exhibits attractiveregions for certain twist angles near the magic angle. Attractive interactions can induce chargedensity waves and superconductivity and therefore our findings could be relevant to understand themicroscopic origins of the recently observed strong correlation phenomena in undoped tBLG. Theresulting screened Hubbard parameters are strongly reduced and exhibit a non-linear dependence onthe twist angle. We also carry out calculations with the constrained random phase approximationand parametrize a twist-angle dependent Keldysh model for the resulting effective interaction.
Prentice J, Charlton R, Mostofi AA, et al., 2019, Combining embedded mean-field theory with linear-scaling density-functional theory, Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, Vol: 16, Pages: 354-365, ISSN: 1549-9618
We demonstrate the capability of embedded mean field theory (EMFT) within the linear-scaling density-functional theory code ONETEP, which enables DFT-in-DFT quantum embedding calculations on systems containing thousands of atoms at a fraction of the cost of a full calculation. We perform simulations on a wide range of systems from molecules to complex nanostructures to demonstrate the performance of our implementation with respect to accuracy and efficiency. This work paves the way for the application of this class of quantum embedding method to large-scale systems that are beyond the reach of existing implementations.
Goodwin ZAH, Corsetti F, Mostofi AA, et al., 2019, Twist-angle sensitivity of electron correlations in moiré graphene bilayers, Physical Review B, Vol: 100, ISSN: 2469-9950
Motivated by the recent observation of correlated insulator states and unconventional superconductivity in twisted bilayer graphene, we study the dependence of electron correlations on the twist angle and reveal the existence of strong correlations over a narrow range of twist angles near the magic angle. Specifically, we determine the on-site and extended Hubbard parameters of the low-energy Wannier states using an atomistic quantum-mechanical approach. The ratio of the on-site Hubbard parameter and the width of the flat bands, which is an indicator of the strength of electron correlations, depends sensitively on the screening by the semiconducting substrate and the metallic gates. Including the effect of long-ranged Coulomb interactions significantly reduces electron correlations and explains the experimentally observed sensitivity of strong-correlation phenomena on twist angles.
Mostofi A, Ablitt C, Bristowe N, et al., 2019, Negative thermal expansion in high pressure layered perovskite Ca2GeO4, Chemical Communications, Vol: 55, Pages: 2984-2987, ISSN: 1359-7345
We report the high pressure synthesis of a layered perovskite Ca2GeO4 which is found to have the Ruddlesden–Popper structure with I41/acd symmetry. Consonant with our recent predictions [Ablitt et al., npj Comput. Mater., 2017, 3, 44], the phase displays pronounced uniaxial negative thermal expansion over a large temperature range. Negative thermal expansion that persists over a large temperature range is very unusual in the perovskite structure, and its occurrence in this instance can be understood to arise due to both soft lattice vibrations associated with a phase competition and the unusually compliant nature of this structure, which effectively couples thermal expansion in the layer plane to lattice contractions perpendicular to the layering direction via a “corkscrew” mechanism.
Golebiowski J, Kermode J, Mostofi A, et al., 2018, Multiscale simulations of critical interfacial failure in carbon nanotube-polymer composites, Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol: 149, ISSN: 0021-9606
Computational investigation of interfacial failure in composite materials is challenging because it is inherently multi-scale: the bond-breaking processes that occur at the covalently bonded interface and initiate failure involve quantum mechanical phenomena, yet the mechanisms by which external stresses are transferred through the matrix occur on length and time scales far in excess of anything that can be simulated quantum mechanically. In this work, we demonstrate and validate an adaptive quantum mechanics (QM)/molecular mechanics simulation method that can be used to address these issues and apply it to study critical failure at a covalently bonded carbon nanotube (CNT)-polymer interface. In this hybrid approach, the majority of the system is simulated with a classical forcefield, while areas of particular interest are identified on-the-fly and atomic forces in those regions are updated based on QM calculations. We demonstrate that the hybrid method results are in excellent agreement with fully QM benchmark simulations and offers qualitative insights missing from classical simulations. We use the hybrid approach to show how the chemical structure at the CNT-polymer interface determines its strength, and we propose candidate chemistries to guide further experimental work in this area.
Mostofi AA, Ablitt C, Senn M, et al., 2018, Control of uniaxial negative thermal expansion in layered Perovskites by tuning layer thickness, Frontiers in Chemistry, Vol: 6, ISSN: 2296-2646
Uniaxial negative thermal expansion (NTE) is known to occur in low n members of the An+1BnO3n+1 Ruddlesden–Popper (RP) layered perovskite series with a frozen rotation of BO6 octahedra about the layering axis. Previous work has shown that this NTE arises due to the combined effects of a close proximity to a transition to a competing phase, so called “symmetry trapping”, and highly anisotropic elastic compliance specific to the symmetry of the NTE phase. We extend this analysis to the broader RP family (n = 1, 2, 3, 4, …, ∞), demonstrating that by changing the fraction of layer interface in the structure (i.e., the value of 1/n) one may control the anisotropic compliance that is necessary for the pronounced uniaxial NTE observed in these systems. More detailed analysis of how the components of the compliance matrix develop with 1/n allows us to identify different regimes, linking enhancements in compliance between these regimes to the crystallographic degrees of freedom in the structure. We further discuss how the perovskite layer thickness affects the frequencies of soft zone boundary modes with large negative Grüneisen parameters, associated with the aforementioned phase transition, that constitute the thermodynamic driving force for NTE. This new insight complements our previous work—showing that chemical control may be used to switch from positive to negative thermal expansion in these systems—since it makes the layer thickness, n, an additional design parameter that may be used to engineer layered perovskites with tuneable thermal expansion. In these respects, we predict that, with appropriate chemical substitution, the n = 1 phase will be the system in which the most pronounced NTE could be achieved.
Wong D, Wang Y, Jin W, et al., 2018, Microscopy of hydrogen and hydrogen-vacancy defect structures on graphene devices, Physical review B: Condensed matter and materials physics, Vol: 98, ISSN: 1098-0121
We have used scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) to investigate two types of hydrogen defect structures on monolayer graphene supported by hexagonal boron nitride (h−BN) in a gated field-effect transistor configuration. The first H-defect type is created by bombarding graphene with 1-keV ionized hydrogen and is identified as two hydrogen atoms bonded to a graphene vacancy via comparison of experimental data to first-principles calculations. The second type of H defect is identified as dimerized hydrogen and is created by depositing atomic hydrogen having only thermal energy onto a graphene surface. Scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) measurements reveal that hydrogen dimers formed in this way open a new elastic channel in the tunneling conductance between an STM tip and graphene.
Molinari N, Sutton A, Mostofi AA, 2018, Mechanisms of reinforcement in polymer nanocomposites, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Vol: 20, Pages: 23085-23094, ISSN: 1463-9076
Coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations are used to elucidate molecular mechanisms responsible for different mechanical behaviours of elastomers containing spherical particles with different volume fractions. We observe that different filler volume fractions result in qualitatively different responses of the polymer nanocomposite to tensile strain. At relatively low filler volume fraction a yield drop appears in the stress–strain curve. As the filler volume fraction increases there is a reduction in the rate of plastic hardening, becoming plastic softening at sufficiently high filler volume fraction. We demonstrate that these behaviours are a result of the network formed by the polymer chains and filler particles. We identify three distinct molecular structural motifs between polymer and filler particles whose relative prevalence varies with the filler volume fraction and as the system is dynamically strained. We show how this evolution in molecular structure is directly linked to the observed mechanical response.
Lischner JC, Mostofi AA, Aghajanian M, 2018, Tuning electronic properties of transition-metal dichalcogenides via defect charge, Scientific Reports, Vol: 8, ISSN: 2045-2322
Defect engineering is a promising route for controlling the electronic properties of monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMD) materials. Here, we demonstrate that the electronic structure of MoS2 depends sensitively on the defect charge, both its sign and magnitude. In particular, we study shallow bound states induced by charged defects using large-scale tight-binding simulations with screened defect potentials and observe qualitative changes in the orbital character of the lowest lying impurity states as function of the impurity charge. To gain further insights, we analyze the competition of impurity states originating from different valleys of the TMD band structure using effective mass theory and find that impurity state binding energies are controlled by the effective mass of the corresponding valley, but with significant deviations from hydrogenic behaviour due to unconventional screening of the defect potential.
Ablitt C, Craddock S, Senn MS, et al., 2017, The origin of uniaxial negative thermal expansion in layered perovskites, npj Computational Materials, Vol: 3, ISSN: 2057-3960
Why is it that ABO3 perovskites generally do not exhibit negative thermal expansion (NTE) over a wide temperature range, whereas layered perovskites of the same chemical family often do? It is generally accepted that there are two key ingredients that determine the extent of NTE: the presence of soft phonon modes that drive contraction (have negative Grüneisen parameters); and anisotropic elastic compliance that predisposes the material to the deformations required for NTE along a specific axis. This difference in thermal expansion properties is surprising since both ABO3 and layered perovskites often possess these ingredients in equal measure in their high-symmetry phases. Using first principles calculations and symmetry analysis, we show that in layered perovskites there is a significant enhancement of elastic anisotropy due to symmetry breaking that results from the combined effect of layering and condensed rotations of oxygen octahedra. This feature, unique to layered perovskites of certain symmetry, is what allows uniaxial NTE to persist over a large temperature range. This fundamental insight means that symmetry and the elastic tensor can be used as descriptors in high-throughput screening and to direct materials design.
Wong D, Corsetti F, Wang Y, et al., 2017, Spatially resolving density-dependent screening around a single charged atom in graphene, Physical Review B, Vol: 95, ISSN: 2469-9950
Electrons in two-dimensional graphene sheets behave as interacting chiral Dirac fermions and have unique screening properties due to their symmetry and reduced dimensionality. By using a combination of scanning tunneling spectroscopy measurements and theoretical modeling we have characterized how graphene's massless charge carriers screen individual charged calcium atoms. A backgated graphene device configuration has allowed us to directly visualize how the screening length for this system can be tuned with carrier density. Our results provide insight into electron-impurity and electron-electron interactions in a relativistic setting with important consequences for other graphene-based electronic devices.
Corsetti F, Mostofi AA, Lischner JL, 2017, First-principles multiscale modelling of charged adsorbates on doped graphene, 2D Materials, Vol: 4, ISSN: 2053-1583
Adsorbed atoms and molecules play an important role in controlling and tuning the functional properties of two-dimensional (2D) materials. Understanding and predicting this process from theory is challenging because of the need to capture the complex interplay between the local chemistry and the long-range screening response. To address this problem, we present a first-principles multiscale approach that combines linear-scaling density-functional theory, continuum screening theory and large-scale tight-binding simulations into a seamless parameter-free theory of adsorbates on 2D materials. We apply this method to investigate the electronic structure of doped graphene with a single calcium (Ca) adatom and find that the Ca atom acts as a Coulomb impurity which modifies the graphene local density of states (LDOS) within a distance of several nanometres in its vicinity. We also observe an important doping dependence of the graphene LDOS near the Ca atom, which gives insights into electronic screening in graphene. Our multiscale framework opens up the possibility of investigating complex mesoscale adsorbate configurations on 2D materials relevant to real devices.
Khawaja M, Sutton AP, Mostofi AA, 2017, Molecular Simulation of Gas Solubility in Nitrile Butadiene Rubber., J Phys Chem B, Vol: 121, Pages: 287-297
Molecular simulation is used to compute the solubility of small gases in nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) with a Widom particle-insertion technique biased by local free volume. The convergence of the method is examined as a function of the number of snapshots upon which the insertions are performed and the number of insertions per snapshot and is compared to the convergence of the unbiased Widom insertion technique. The effect of varying the definition of local free volume is also investigated. The acrylonitrile content of the polymer is altered to examine its influence on the solubility of helium, CO2, and H2O, and the solubilities of polar gases are found to be enhanced relative to those of nonpolar gases, in qualitative agreement with experiment. To probe this phenomenon further, the solubilities are decomposed into contributions from the neighborhoods of different atoms, using a Voronoi cell construction, and a strong bias is found for CO2 and H2O in particular to be situated near nitrogen sites in the elastomer. Temperature is shown to suppress the solubility of CO2 and H2O but to increase that of helium. Increasing pressure is found to suppress the solubility of all gases but at different rates, according to a balance between their molecular sizes and electrostatic interactions with the polymer. These results are relevant to the use of NBR seals at elevated temperatures and pressures, such as in oil and gas wells.
Molinari N, Khawaja M, Sutton AP, et al., 2016, Molecular Model for HNBR with Tunable Cross-Link Density, The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Vol: 120, Pages: 12700-12707, ISSN: 1520-6106
Muscatello J, Muller EA, Mostofi AA, et al., 2016, Multiscale molecular simulations of the formation and structure of polyamide membranes created by interfacial polymerization, Journal of Membrane Science, Vol: 527, Pages: 180-190, ISSN: 0376-7388
Large scale molecular simulations to model the formation of polyamide membranes have been carried out using a procedure that mimics experimental interfacial polymerization of trimesoyl chloride (TMC) and metaphenylene diamine (MPD) monomers. A coarse-grained representation of the monomers has been developed to facilitate these simulations, which captures essential features of the stereochemistry of the monomers and of amide bonding between them. Atomic models of the membranes are recreated from the final coarse-grained representations. Consistent with earlier treatments, membranes are formed through the growth and aggregation of oligomer clusters. The membranes are inhomogeneous, displaying opposing gradients of trapped carboxyl and amine side groups, local density variations, and regions where the density of amide bonding is reduced as a result of the aggregation process. We observe the interfacial polymerization reaction is self-limiting and the simulated membranes display a thickness of 5–10 nm. They also display a surface roughness of 1–4 nm. Comparisons are made with recently published experimental results on the structure and chemistry of these membranes and some interesting similarities and differences are found.
Elliott JD, Poli E, Scivetti I, et al., 2016, Chemically selective alternatives to photoferroelectrics for polarization-enhanced photocatalysis: the untapped potential of hybrid inorganic nanotubes, Advanced Science, Vol: 4, ISSN: 2198-3844
Linear-scaling density functional theory simulation of methylated imogolite nanotubes (NTs) elucidates the interplay between wall-polarization, bands separation, charge-transfer excitation, and tunable electrostatics inside and outside the NT-cavity. The results suggest that integration of polarization-enhanced selective photocatalysis and chemical separation into one overall dipole-free material should be possible. Strategies are proposed to increase the NT polarization for maximally enhanced electron–hole separation.
Senn MS, Murray C, Luo X, et al., 2016, Symmetry Switching of Negative Thermal Expansion by Chemical Control, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol: 138, Pages: 5479-5482, ISSN: 1520-5126
The layered perovskite Ca3-xSrxMn2O7 is shown to exhibit a switching from a material exhibiting uniaxial negative to positive thermal expansion as a function of x. The switching is shown to be related to two closely competing phases with different symmetries. The negative thermal expansion (NTE) effect is maximised when the solid solution is tuned closest to this region of phase space but is switched off suddenly on passing though the transition. Our results show for the first time that, by understanding the symmetry of the competing phases alone, one may achieve unprecedented chemical control of this unusual property.
Poli E, Elliott JD, Ratcliff LE, et al., 2016, The potential of imogolite nanotubes as (co-)photocatalysts: a linear-scaling density functional theory study, Journal of Physics-Condensed Matter, Vol: 28, ISSN: 1361-648X
We report a linear-scaling density functional theory (DFT) study of the structure, wall-polarization absolute band-alignment and optical absorption of several, recently synthesized, open-ended imogolite (Imo) nanotubes (NTs), namely single-walled (SW) aluminosilicate (AlSi), SW aluminogermanate (AlGe), SW methylated aluminosilicate (AlSi-Me), and double-walled (DW) AlGe NTs. Simulations with three different semi-local and dispersion-corrected DFT-functionals reveal that the NT wall-polarization can be increased by nearly a factor of four going from SW-AlSi-Me to DW-AlGe. Absolute vacuum alignment of the NT electronic bands and comparison with those of rutile and anatase TiO2 suggest that the NTs may exhibit marked propensity to both photo-reduction and hole-scavenging. Characterization of the NTs' band-separation and optical properties reveal the occurrence of (near-)UV inside–outside charge-transfer excitations, which may be effective for electron–hole separation and enhanced photocatalytic activity. Finally, the effects of the NTs' wall-polarization on the absolute alignment of electron and hole acceptor states of interacting water (H2O) molecules are quantified and discussed.
Poli E, Elliott JD, Hine NDM, et al., 2015, Large-scale density functional theory simulation of inorganic nanotubes: a case study on Imogolite nanotubes, MATERIALS RESEARCH INNOVATIONS, Vol: 19, Pages: S272-S282, ISSN: 1432-8917
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Bell RA, Dubois SM-M, Payne MC, et al., 2015, Electronic transport calculations in the ONETEP code: Implementation and applications, Computer Physics Communications, Vol: 193, Pages: 78-88, ISSN: 1879-2944
Teobaldi G, O'Regan D, Hine N, et al., 2015, Self-consistent projector constrained density functional theory in ONETEP, Publisher: AMER CHEMICAL SOC, ISSN: 0065-7727
Bell RA, Payne MC, Mostofi AA, 2014, Does water dope carbon nanotubes?, JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS, Vol: 141, ISSN: 0021-9606
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Broadbent RJ, Spencer JS, Mostofi AA, et al., 2014, Accelerated simulations of aromatic polymers: application to polyether ether ketone (PEEK), MOLECULAR PHYSICS, Vol: 112, Pages: 2672-2680, ISSN: 0026-8976
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Teobaldi G, Morgan BJ, Regan DDO, et al., 2014, Subspace-corrected functionals for linear-scaling density functional theory simulation of extended energy storage interfaces, 248th National Meeting of the American-Chemical-Society (ACS), Publisher: AMER CHEMICAL SOC, ISSN: 0065-7727
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