Surface tensions of iron-nickel alloys were measured as a function of oxygen potential at 1550 ЊC using the sessile drop technique. The surface tension of pure liquid nickel and iron-nickel alloys was measured at a total pressure of 1 atmosphere under varying CO 2 /CO ratios. An increase in the oxygen potential in the gas phase was found to correspond to a decrease in surface tension of pure nickel and iron-nickel alloys, indicating that oxygen is surface active in both liquid nickel and iron-nickel alloys. At low oxygen potentials, nickel additions to liquid iron were found to cause small decreases in alloy surface tensions; however, at higher oxygen potentials, the surface tension of the alloy exhibited a minimum value as nickel was added to iron. The adsorption coefficients of oxygen in liquid iron-nickel alloys and pure liquid nickel were determined from the surface-tension data using Belton's analysis, and were found to be similar to those calculated from kinetic studies. Wettability of iron-nickel alloys on an alumina substrate was studied through contact-angle measurements. At a constant alloy nickel content, the contact angle between the alloy and alumina decreased with increased oxygen potential in the gas phase.

A simple model explains the atomic and electronic structure of Heusler surfaces, supported by experiments and first-principles theory.

Chalcopyrites are a demonstrated material platform for realizing efficient thin-film photovoltaics, with the most well known Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS)-based solar cells exceeding 23%. Several factors, including flexibility in tuning the absorber bandgap, enhanced surface treatments, and the electrically benign nature of common defects are responsible for the existing high performance and future promise in chalcopyrite-based photovoltaic devices. The introduction of Cu-poor phases (also known as ordered-vacancy compounds or OVCs) between the absorber and buffer layers in CIGS solar cells is known to enhance device performance; however, the overall properties and role of OVCs remain poorly understood. Using first principles calculations based on the density functional theory with screened hybrid functionals, we explore the electronic structure and stability of OVCs and their band offsets with defect-free chalcopyrite layers in Cu- and Ag-based compounds (ABX2 where A=Cu, Ag; B=In, Ga, Al; and X=S, Se). Using AB3X5 and AB5X8 stoichiometries as model OVC systems, we report on the variation of the bandgap with the A/B ratio and discuss the trends in other Cu- and Ag-based chalcopyrites beyond CuInSe2. We find that the valence and conduction bands are lower in energy in OVCs with respect to the parent ABX2 chalcopyrite owing to a reduced p–d interaction between X and A atoms. We additionally perform device-level simulations to assess the implications of the results, finding that the valence band offsets of OVCs are favorable, while the conduction band offsets of chalcopyrites beyond CuInSe2-based absorbers may be detrimental in conventional solar cell device designs.

The structural parameters and electronic structure of rare-earth pnictides are calculated using density functional theory (DFT) with the Heyd, Scuseria, and Ernzerhof (HSE06) screened hybrid functional. We focus on RE-V compounds, with RE=La, Gd, Er, and Lu, and V=As, Sb, and Bi, and analyze the effects of spin-orbit coupling and treating the RE 4f electrons as valence electrons in the projector augmented wave approach. The results of HSE06 calculations are compared with DFT within the generalized gradient approximation (DFT-GGA) and other previous calculations.We find that all these RE-V compounds are semimetals with electron pockets at the X point and hole pockets at Γ. Whereas in DFT-GGA the carrier density is significantly overestimated, the computed carrier densities using HSE06 is in good agreement with the available experimental data.

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Materials design from first principles enables exploration of uncharted chemical spaces. Extensive computational searches have been performed for mixed-cation ternary compounds, but mixed-anion systems are gaining increased interest as well. Central to computational discovery is the crystal structure prediction, where the trade-off between reliance on prototype structures and size limitations of unconstrained sampling has to be navigated. We approach this challenge by letting two complementary structure sampling approaches compete. We use the kinetically limited minimization approach for high-throughput unconstrained crystal structure prediction in smaller cells up to 21 atoms. On the other hand, ternary—and, more generally, multinary—systems often assume structures formed by atomic ordering on a lattice derived from a binary parent structure. Thus, we additionally sample atomic configurations on prototype lattices with cells up to 56 atoms. Using this approach, we searched 65 different charge-balanced oxide–nitride stoichiometries, including six known systems as the control sample. The convex hull analysis is performed both for the thermodynamic limit and for the case of synthesis with activated nitrogen sources. We identified 34 phases that are either on the convex hull or within a viable energy window for potentially metastable phases. We further performed structure sampling for “missing” binary nitrides whose energies are needed for the convex hull analysis. Among these, we discovered metastable Ce3N4 as a nitride analog of the tetravalent cerium oxide, which becomes stable under slightly activated nitrogen condition ΔμN > +0.07 eV. Given the outsize role of CeO2 in research and application, Ce3N4 is a potentially important discovery.

Observation of large nonsaturating magnetoresistance in rare-earth monopnictides has raised enormous interest in understanding the role of its electronic structure. Here, by a combination of molecular-beam epitaxy, low-temperature transport, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, and hybrid density functional theory we have unveiled the band structure of LuSb, where electron-hole compensation is identified as a mechanism responsible for large magnetoresistance in this topologically trivial compound. In contrast to bulk single crystal analogues, quasi-two-dimensional behavior is observed in our thin films for both electron and holelike carriers, indicative of dimensional confinement of the electronic states. Introduction of defects through growth parameter tuning results in the appearance of quantum interference effects at low temperatures, which has allowed us to identify the dominant inelastic scattering processes and elucidate the role of spin-orbit coupling. Our findings open up possibilities of band structure engineering and control of transport properties in rare-earth monopnictides via epitaxial synthesis.

We calculate formation energies and transition levels for copper-related defects in silicon using the screened hybrid functional of Heyd, Scuseria, and Enzernhof HSE06. We considered Cu siting on interstitial sites (Cu i), substitutional site (Cu Si), Cu Si-Cu i pair, a complex formed of substitutional Cu and intersititial hydrogen (Cu Si-H i) and a complex formed of a substitutional Cu and three interstitial Cu (Cu Si-3Cu i). We find that Cu i is a fast diffuser, with migration barrier of only 0.19 eV, in good agreement with experimental values. Cu i is a shallow donor and its formation energy is lower than that of Cu Si for all Fermi level positions in the band gap. Cu Si , on the other hand, induce levels in the gap, which are related to the occupation of antibonding states originated from the coupling between the Cu 3d states (t (d) 2), resonant in the valence band, and the vacancy-induced gap states (t (p) 2). The stable charge states of Cu Si in the gap are +1, 0,-1, and-2. The transition levels of Cu Si-Cu i and Cu Si-H i are closely related to the levels of isolated Cu Si : a donor level (+/0) near the valence band, an acceptor level near mid gap, and a double acceptor level in the upper part of the gap. The calculated transition levels are in good agreement with experimental results, and the formation energies explain the observed solubility.