A descoberta da magnetoresistência (GMR) em materiais granulares gerou um grande interesse no estudo destes materiais, havendo um empenho particular no estudo de grãos de CO em CU e AG. Como as propriedades de transporte estão ligadas intimamente às estruturais, o entendimento da GMR nestes materiais requer uma descrição acurada destas características. Neste trabalho, procurando determinar algumas características magnéticas locais, usamos o método RS-LMTO-ASA para realizar um estudo sistemático dos momentos magnéticos locais e campos hiperfinos com respeito ao tamanho de grãos de CI com até 135 átomos em matrizes de CU e AG fcc. Além disso, estudamos FE e CO nas configurações espaciais seguintes em hospedeiro AG: impurezas isoladas, dímeros FE-FE e FE-CO e precipitados com 13, 19 e 43 átomos. Calculamos o FE enquanto impureza central nos grãos de CO e, para os clusters com 13 e 19 átomos, também consideramos a impureza em posições de interface. Encontramos para os grãos em AG momentos magnéticos bastante estáveis e, para o CU, obtivemos uma ligeira dependência do momento magnético médio com o tamanho do grão. Nossos resultados mostram que há uma diferença significativa no comportamento de grãos e clusters livres. Para os campos hiperfinos, mostramos que este segue comportamentos semelhantes em todos os casos, tendo uma dependência sistemática com relação ao sítio / The discovery of giant magnetoresistance (GMR) in granular materiais generated a great interest in the study of these systems. Special attention has been devoted to Co grains inside Cu and Ag medium. As the transport properties are closely related to structural characteristics, an accurate description is required in order to understand the GMR behavior in these materiais. Here we use the Real Space-LMTO-ASA method to perform a systematic study of the site and grain size dependence of local magnetic moments and hyperfine fields at Co grains ( up to 135 atoms) in fcc Ag and Cu hosts. We have also studied Fe and Co atoms in different spatial configurations in Ag hosts: isolated impurities, Fe-Fe and Fe-Co dimmers and precipitates containing 13, 19 and 43 atoms. Special attention is given to the differences between central and interface positions of Fe atoms in the two smallest Co clusters. We found a very stable value for the local moment at Co atoms in Ag hosts whereas the average local moments for Co grains in Cu tend to be slight ly larger for larger grains. we show that free and embedded Co clusters have very different magnetic behavior. The hyperfine fields present similar values in both matrices and exhibit a systematic site dependence.

O entendimento das propriedades de complexos metálicos é de fundamental importância para o desenvolvimento de fármacos. No entanto, tanto do ponto de vista experimental quanto no de modelagem teórica, ainda temos muitas dificuldades de simular e mensurar as mudanças que a complexação com um metal causa em um composto. Este trabalho apresenta estudos de simulacões ab initio de complexos de Epiisopiloturina com Cu e Zn. Foram realizadas otimizações de estrutura, simulaçoes de espectroscopia vibracional, NMR e EPR além de estudos de reatividade. Obtivemos uma geometria otimizada condizente com a da forma cristalizada. Além disso, os resultados espectroscópicos mostram que as estruturas dos com plexos permanecem intactas em solução. Por fim, os estudos de reatividade conrmam que o complexo de Cobre aumenta a reatividade da molécula. / Understanding the properties of metal complexes is fundamental goal in the development of drugs. However, both from the experimental point of view and theoretical modeling, many diculties in the simulation and evaluatio of the changes that the metal causes upon complexation still remains. This work presents ab initio computational simulations of Epiisopiloturin com plexes with Cu and Zn. We make structural optimizations, simulations of vibrational spectroscopy, NMR and EPR, as well as reactivity studies. We obtain an optimized geometry that corresponds to that of the crystallized form. In addition, the spectroscopic results conrm that the complexes remain intact in solution. Finally, the reactivity studies conrm that the copper complex increases the reactivity of the molecule.

Quais propriedades magnéticas são modificadas quando se agrupam átomos de Fe/Co para formar estruturas quasi-2D, se comparadas aos nanofios (quasi-1D) de FexCo1-x? E como estas propriedades reagem com a variação da proporção de Fe/Co nos aglomerados? A fim de responder a estas questões, trímeros de FexCo1-x depositados em Pt(111) são investigados utilizando o método de primeiros princípios Real Space-Linear Muffin-Tin Orbital-Atomic Sphere Approximation (RS-LMTO-ASA) no âmbito da Teoria do Funcional da Densidade (DFT). Diferentes configurações de trímeros triangulares são consideradas, variando-se as posições e a concentração dos átomos de Fe/Co. Neste trabalho, demonstra-se a ocorrência de uma tendência não-linear estritamente decrescente dos momentos orbitais médios como função da concentração de Fe, distinta do encontrado tanto para os nanofios de FexCo1-x (dependência linear) quanto para a monocamada correspondente (dependência não-linear). Os resultados obtidos mostram ainda que os momentos orbitais variam com o ambiente local e com a direção de magnetização, especialmente quando associados aos átomos de Co, em concordância com publicações anteriores. A mudança de dimensionalidade quasi-1D (nanofios) para quasi-2D (trímeros compactos) não afeta o comportamento dos momentos de spin, que permanecem descritos por uma função linear com respeito à proporção de Fe/Co. Ambos o formato e a concentração de Fe nos sistemas apresentam um papel importante nos valores de energia de anisotropia magnética. Em adição, observou-se que o subtrato de Pt opera ativamente na definição das propriedades magnéticas dos aglomerados. Embora todas as configurações lineares e compactas dos aglomerados de FexCo1-x sejam estáveis e exibam interações fortemente ferromagnéticas entre os primeiros vizinhos, nem todas revelaram o ordenamento colinear como estado fundamental, apresentando uma interação de Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya não-desprezível induzida pelo acoplamento spin-órbita. Estes casos específicos são: o trímero triangular de Co puro e o trímero linear (nanofio) de Fe puro, para o qual foi verificado o acoplamento do tipo Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida entre os átomos de Fe constituintes. Os resultados obtidos contribuem para o entendimento de quais mecanismos definem o magnetismo nos trímeros de FexCo1-x/Pt(111), e discutem as questões presentes atualmente na literatura no contexto destes sistemas. / Which nanomagnetic properties change when we group Fe/Co atoms to form quasi-2D structures, in comparison with FexCo1-x nanowires quasi-1D arrangements? And how these properties react with the Fe/Co proportion variation? To answer these questions, FexCo1-x trimers deposited on the Pt(111) surface are investigated with the first-principles Real Space-Linear Muffin-Tin Orbital-Atomic Sphere Approximation (RS-LMTO-ASA) method in the framework of the Density Functional Theory (DFT). Different configurations of triangular trimers are considered, varying the positions and concentration of Fe/Co atoms. We demonstrate the occurrence of a strictly decreasing nonlinear trend of the average orbital moments with the Fe concentration, different from what was found for FexCo1-x/Pt(111) nanochains (linear dependence), but also contrasting to the monolayer behavior (nonlinear dependence). Our results show that the orbital moments change with local environment and the direction of magnetization, especially for Co atoms, in agreement with previous investigations. When the structures deposited on Pt(111) change from quasi-1D (nanowires) to quasi-2D (compact trimers) arrangements, the average spin moments are still described by a linear function with respect to Fe/Co proportion. Both the Fe concentration and shape of the system have an important role on the magnetic anisotropy energy values. In addition, we observed that Pt substrate operates actively on the obtained magnetic properties. Although all studied linear and compact FexCo1-x configurations are stable and substantially ferromagnetic for nearest-neighbors interactions, not all revealed a collinear magnetic ordering as ground state, presenting a non-negligible Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction induced by spin-orbit coupling. For this particular case we can mention the triangular pure Co trimer and the linear (nanowire) pure Fe trimer, which shows a Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida-like coupling between the constituent Fe atoms. The obtained results contribute to the understanding of which mechanisms define the magnetism of FexCo1-x/Pt(111) trimers, and discuss issues currently present in literature in the context of these systems.

In the most recent two decades, the development of impurity controls with ultra-high precision in semiconductors motivates people to put more and more attentions on the solotronic devices, whose properties depend on one or a few dopants. One of the most promising applications of solotronic device is the qubit in quantum computing. In the procedure of exploring qubit candidates, the most straightforward challenges we need face include that the qubit must be highly isolated and can be initialized/manipulated efficiently with high fidelities. It has been proved that qubits based on single defects have excellent performances as quits. For instance, the NV center in diamond forms a ground spin triplet which can be manipulated at room temperature with electromagnetic fields. This work focuses on searching for new single defects as qubit candidates with density functional theory. Lanthanides element possesses excellent optical characteristics and extremely long nuclear coherence time. Therefore, combining it into the diamond platform can be possible design for integrated quantum information processing devices in the future. To investigate the stability of lanthanides dopants in the diamond matrix, the formation energies of charge states of complexes are calculated. The broadening of Eu(III) peak in the photoluminescence spectrum can be verified according to the existence of more than stable configuration and steady 4f electron occupation. In the case of transition-metal dopant in the silicon carbide, it is found that both silicon and carbon substituted nickels in 3C-SiC shows a magnetic-antimagnetic transition under applied strains. The virtual hopping rate of electrons strongly depends on the distance between the spin pair residing in the nickel and dangling bonds. Therefore, the Heisenberg exchange coupling between them can be adjusted subtly by controlling the external strain. According to the the spin Hamiltonian of the defect, the spin state can be manipulated universally with strain and electromagnetic fields. In contrast, the nickel dopant in 4H-SiC exhibits a very stable magnetic property. Other than that, the electronic structure of Cr in 4H-SiC implies that optical manipulations of spin states might be realized in the excited state.

The problem of spin manipulation via the spin-orbit interaction in nonmagnetic semiconductors in the absence of magnetic fields is investigated in this work. We begin with a review of the literature on spin dynamics in semiconductors, then discuss the semi-empirical k ⋅ p method of calculating direct-gap semiconductor properties, which we use to estimate material parameters significant for manipulation of spin even in the absence of a magnetic field. The total effective magnetic fields and precession lengths are calculated for a variety of quantum well orientations, and a class of devices are proposed that will allow for all-electric arbitrary manipulation of spin orientations. The strain- and momentum-dependent spin splitting coefficient C3 has been calculated using a fourteen band Kane k⋅p model for a variety of III-V semiconductors as well as ZnSe and CdSe. It is observed that the spin-splitting parameters C3 and γ, corresponding to the strain-induced spin-orbit interaction and Dresselhaus coefficient, are sensitive to the value of the inter-band spin-orbit coupling Δ− between the p valence and p̄ second conduction band in all cases. The value of Δ− has therefore been recalculated in these materials using a tight-binding model and modern experimental values of the valence and second conduction band spin-orbit splittings. The total effective magnetic field and precession length of spins in strained quantum wells in the (001), (110), and (111) planes are derived with consideration for all known effective magnetic fields except those due to interface effects in non- common-atom heterostructures (native inversion asymmetry). The orientation of the k-linear Dresselhaus field and the strain-dependent fields vary strongly with the growth axis of the quantum well. The precession length in the (110) and (001) cases can achieve infinite anisotropy, while the precession length of (111) quantum wells is always isotropic. We find that the electronic spin rotation induced by drift transport around a closed path in a wide variety of nonmagnetic semiconductors at zero magnetic field depends solely on the physical path taken. Physical paths that produce any possible spin rotation due to transport around a closed path are constructed for electrons experiencing strain or electric fields in (001), (110), or (111)-grown zinc blende semiconductor quantum wells. Spin decoherence due to travel along the path is negligible compared to the background spin decoherence rate. The small size of the designed paths (< 100 nm scale in GaAs) may lead to applications in nanoscale spintronic circuits.

The exact and phaseless variants of auxiliary-field quantum Monte Carlo (AFQMC) have been shown to be capable of producing accurate ground-state energies for a wide variety of systems including those which exhibit substantial electron correlation effects. The first chapter of this thesis will provide an overview of the relevant electronic structure problem, and the phaseless AFQMC (ph-AFQMC) methodology. The computational cost of performing these calculations has to date been relatively high, impeding many important applications of these approaches. In Chapter 2 we present a correlated sampling methodology for AFQMC which relies on error cancellation to dramatically accelerate the calculation of energy differences of relevance to chemical transformations. In particular, we show that our correlated sampling-based ph-AFQMC approach is capable of calculating redox properties, deprotonation free energies, and hydrogen abstraction energies in an efficient manner without sacrificing accuracy. We validate the computational protocol by calculating the ionization potentials and electron affinities of the atoms contained in the G2 test set and then proceed to utilize a composite method, which treats fixed-geometry processes with correlated sampling-based AFQMC and relaxation energies via MP2, to compute the ionization potential, deprotonation free energy, and the O-H bond dissociation energy of methanol, all to within chemical accuracy. We show that the efficiency of correlated sampling relative to uncorrelated calculations increases with system and basis set size and that correlated sampling greatly reduces the required number of random walkers to achieve a target statistical error. This translates to reductions in wall-times by factors of 55, 25, and 24 for the ionization potential of the K atom, the deprotonation of methanol, and hydrogen abstraction from the O-H bond of methanol, respectively. In Chapter 3 we present an implementation of ph-AFQMC utilizing graphical processing units (GPUs). The AFQMC method is recast in terms of matrix operations which are spread across thousands of processing cores and are executed in batches using custom Compute Unified Device Architecture kernels and the hardware-optimized cuBLAS matrix library. Algorithmic advances include a batched Sherman-Morrison-Woodbury algorithm to quickly update matrix determinants and inverses, density-fitting of the two-electron integrals, an energy algorithm involving a high-dimensional precomputed tensor, and the use of single-precision floating point arithmetic. These strategies result in dramatic reductions in wall-times for both single- and multi-determinant trial wavefunctions. For typical calculations we find speed-ups of roughly two orders of magnitude using just a single GPU card. Furthermore, we achieve near-unity parallel efficiency using 8 GPU cards on a single node, and can reach moderate system sizes via a local memory-slicing approach. We illustrate the robustness of our implementation on hydrogen chains of increasing length, and through the calculation of all-electron ionization potentials of the first-row transition metal atoms. We compare long imaginary-time calculations utilizing a population control algorithm with our previously published correlated sampling approach, and show that the latter improves not only the efficiency but also the accuracy of the computed ionization potentials. Taken together, the GPU implementation combined with correlated sampling provides a compelling computational method that will broaden the application of ph-AFQMC to the description of realistic correlated electronic systems. In Chapter 4 the bond dissociation energies of a set of 44 3d transition metal-containing diatomics are computed with ph-AFQMC utilizing the correlated sampling technique. We investigate molecules with H, N, O, F, Cl, and S ligands, including those in the 3dMLBE20 database first compiled by Truhlar and co-workers with calculated and experimental values that have since been revised by various groups. In order to make a direct comparison of the accuracy of our ph-AFQMC calculations with previously published results from 10 DFT functionals, CCSD(T), and icMR-CCSD(T), we establish an objective selection protocol which utilizes the most recent experimental results except for a few cases with well-specified discrepancies. With the remaining set of 41 molecules, we find that ph-AFQMC gives robust agreement with experiment superior to that of all other methods, with a mean absolute error (MAE) of 1.4(4) kcal/mol and maximum error of 3(3) kcal/mol (parenthesis account for reported experimental uncertainties and the statistical errors of our ph-AFQMC calculations). In comparison, CCSD(T) and B97, the best performing DFT functional considered here, have MAEs of 2.8 and 3.7 kcal/mol, respectively, and maximum errors in excess of 17 kcal/mol (for the CoS diatomic). While a larger and more diverse data set would be required to demonstrate that ph-AFQMC is truly a benchmark method for transition metal systems, our results indicate that the method has tremendous potential, exhibiting unprecedented consistency and accuracy compared to other approximate quantum chemical approaches. The energy gap between the lowest-lying singlet and triplet states is an important quantity in chemical photocatalysis, with relevant applications ranging from triplet fusion in optical upconversion to the design of organic light-emitting devices. The ab initio prediction of singlet-triplet (ST) gaps is challenging due to the potentially biradical nature of the involved states, combined with the potentially large size of relevant molecules. In Chapter 5, we show that ph-AFQMC can accurately predict ST gaps for chemical systems with singlet states of highly biradical nature, including a set of 13 small molecules and the ortho-, meta-, and para- isomers of benzyne. With respect to gas-phase experiments, ph-AFQMC using CASSCF trial wavefunctions achieves a mean averaged error of ~1 kcal/mol. Furthermore, we find that in the context of a spin-projection technique, ph-AFQMC using unrestricted single-determinant trial wavefunctions, which can be readily obtained for even very large systems, produces equivalently high accuracy. We proceed to show that this scalable methodology is capable of yielding accurate ST gaps for all linear polyacenes for which experimental measurements exist, i.e. naphthalene, anthracene, tetracene, and pentacene. Our results suggest a protocol for selecting either unrestricted Hartree-Fock or Kohn-Sham orbitals for the single-determinant trial wavefunction, based on the extent of spin-contamination. These findings provide a reliable computational tool with which to investigate specific photochemical processes involving large molecules that may have substantial biradical character. We compute the ST gaps for a set of anthracene derivatives which are potential triplet-triplet annihilators for optical upconversion, and compare our ph-AFQMC predictions with those from DFT and CCSD(T) methods. We conclude with a discussion of ongoing projects, further methodological improvements on the horizon, and future applications of ph-AFQMC to chemical systems of interest in the fields of biology, drug-discovery, catalysis, and condensed matter physics.

<p>A parameter free approach for the calculation of the crystal field splitting of the lowest Russel-Saunders <i>J</i>-multiplet in <i>f</i>-electron systems has been developed and applied to selected compounds. The developed theory is applicable to general symmetries and is based on symmetry constrained density functional theory calculations in the local density or in the generalised gradient approximation.</p><p>The magnetocrystalline anisotropy of Gd has been analysed. It has been shown that the peculiar orientation of the easy axis of magnetisation is consistent with an <i>S</i>-ground state. Further, the temperature dependence of the easy axis of magnetisation has been investigated and it has been shown that the temperature driven reduction of the effective magnetisation is the principal mechanism responsible for it.</p><p>A new method has been developed that allows for theoretical studies of the electronic structure and total energy of elements and compounds in an intermediate valence regime. The method combines model and first-principles band structure calculations, therefore being accurate and computationally efficient. It has been applied to Yb metal under pressure obtaining a remarkable agreement with experimental observations for the equation of state and the x-ray absorption spectroscopy.</p>

The structural, electronic, and superconducting properties of one dimensional materials are calculated from first principles, using the density functional theory. Nanotubes and nanowires are important building blocks in nanotechnology, in particular for nanoelectronics. In this manuscript, the growth of carbon nanotubes is studied through the interaction between carbon and the transition metal atoms used as growth catalysts. The accepted model for a new phase of nanotube-like molybdenum disulfide is critically examined using comparisons of energetic stability and types of chemical bonding in different candidate structures which have similar compositions. The epitaxial growth of diamond carbon on (100) iridium is exceptionally favorable. The differences between various substrates used experimentally are studied, and the specificity of Ir is shown. Finally, the characteristics of the electron-phonon interaction in aluminium nanowires are determined. The structural instabilities and the differences in the electron-phonon coupling are calculated for straight monoatomic wires, zigzag wires, and thicker straight wires. The constrained geometry of the wires generates a coupling which can be very strong or almost vanish, depending on the structural details, but which is concentrated in the longitudinal high-frequency phonons.

This Ph.D. dissertation is focused on the investigation the structure of nitrile anion containing molecules and how the structure and reactivity of those molecules are affected by solvation and counter ion. A systematic approach was employed in this investigation, beginning with an evaluation of the accuracy of three commonly used model chemistries (Hartree-Fock (HF), Second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2), the Becke three-parameter exchange functional coupled with the nonlocal correlation functional of Lee, Yang, and Parr (B3LYP), all paired with the 6-31+G(d) basis set). A series of complexes of various cations with a number of explicit molecules of tetrahydrofuran (THF) and dimethyl ether (DME) were studied with these model chemistries and the results were compared, where possible, with experimental results. From this work, it was determined that the B3LYP models gave the most accurate results for the complexes in question. This work was then extended to acetonitrile anion containing complexes of solvent and cation. Based on the results of that extension, it was determined that cation size and charge density on the cation were critical factors in determining the structure of the acetonitrile anion molecule and in determining if the anion was metalated at the nitrogen or alpha-carbon position, with larger cations favoring carbon metalation and more significant deformation of the alpha-carbon from the expected sp2 hybridization. The final aspect of this dissertation was the determination of reaction coordinate energy profiles for a pair of substitution reactions involving nitrile anion containing cycloaliphatic molecules. The results of this study showed that, due to steric and kinetic factors, the axial products and transitions states associated with these reactions were favored, and that the degree of preference was kinetically controlled. / Bayer School of Natural and Environmental Sciences / Chemistry and Biochemistry / PhD / Dissertation

The structural, electronic, and superconducting properties of one dimensional materials are calculated from first principles, using the density functional theory. Nanotubes and nanowires are important building blocks in nanotechnology, in particular for nanoelectronics. In this manuscript, the growth of carbon nanotubes is studied through the interaction between carbon and the transition metal atoms used as growth catalysts. The accepted model for a new phase of nanotube-like molybdenum disulfide is critically examined using comparisons of energetic stability and types of chemical bonding in different candidate structures which have similar compositions. The epitaxial growth of diamond carbon on (100) iridium is exceptionally favorable. The differences between various substrates used experimentally are studied, and the specificity of Ir is shown. Finally, the characteristics of the electron-phonon interaction in aluminium nanowires are determined. The structural instabilities and the differences in the electron-phonon coupling are calculated for straight monoatomic wires, zigzag wires, and thicker straight wires. The constrained geometry of the wires generates a coupling which can be very strong or almost vanish, depending on the structural details, but which is concentrated in the longitudinal high-frequency phonons.