This thesis outlines the development of two new techniques that exploit very small structures, on the micro- and nano-scale, to enable innovative electrical transport measurements on a variety of materials of current interest in condensed matter physics. The first technique aims to apply the versatility of electron-beam lithography for micro-fabrication of patterned electronic circuitry to the problem of performing transport experiments on individual crystallites taken from a typical powder sample. We show that these small samples, tens of microns in size, are actually often very high quality single crystals and can be exploited for measurements of electrical transport in materials of which no larger crystals are available. By way of demonstration, we present the results of preliminary transport measurements on a crystallite of the layered oxide chalcogenide Sr₂MnO₂Cu_1.5Se₂. We report a phase transition in the resistivity at 213K which may correspond to the onset of previously reported short-range order in copper and vacancy sites in the Cu_1.5Se₂ planes. The second technique is designed to investigate the topological protection of surface transport in 3-D topological insulators. We decorate the surfaces of single-crystal samples with two different species from a well-characterised family of single-molecule magnets. The two coatings have an electrostatically identical influence on the sample surface, but differ in that one species carries a spin and the other is spinless. The spinless molecule acts as a control, to allow us to cleanly determine the influence of the magnetic component of a scattering potential on transport in the surface. With this technique we investigate proposed topological Kondo insulator SmB₆. We find that the surface state dominates low-temperature transport and demonstrate that the momentum relaxation is very sensitive to a spin degree of freedom in the scatterer, in keeping with expectations of a topological insulator.

Polímeros conjugados semicondutores tem atraído grande interesse nas últimas décadas devido às possíveis aplicações como componentes ativos em aplicações optoeletrônicas. A adequação destes semicondutores orgânicos para a fabricação de dispositivos depende do entendimento e controle de propriedades eletrônicas básicas: gap fundamental (Eg) e potencial de ionização (IP). Nesse contexto, estudos teóricos baseados em cálculos de primeiros princípios tem se mostrado muito úteis, uma vez que possibilitam a simulação de processos físicos em condições ideais, onde se pode analisar as propriedades eletrônicas de polímeros desconsiderando efeitos do ambiente ou desordem estrutural. A Teoria do Funcional da Densidade (DFT) tem se tornado o método mais comum para o cálculo da estrutura eletrônica do estado fundamental de uma ampla variedade de materiais orgânicos complexos. Embora cálculos DFT baseados na diferença de energias totais tem sido aplicados com sucesso para estimar IPs de moléculas pequenas, este método falha nas propriedades de sistemas conjugados longos. Realmente, a capacidade preditiva da DFT padrão com respeito as propriedades espectroscópicas é frequentemente limitada, entretanto o tratamento adequado das excitações eletrônicas através de abordagens de muitos corpos é ainda muito difícil para materiais orgânicos complexos. Funcionais híbridos que misturam uma fração () de troca exata (EX) não-local ao correspondente semi-local representam uma boa alternativa, embora a quantidade ideal de EX seja, em geral, dependente do sistema. Neste trabalho, adotamos um esquema não-empírico baseado na aproximação G0W0 para identificar o valor ótimo de para o funcional híbrido PBE no qual a correção de autoenergia para o orbital mais alto ocupado (HOMO) de Kohn-Sham generalisado é minimizado. Estudamos, com base nessa estratégia, a dependência com o comprimento das propriedades eletrônicas básicas em uma família de oligômeros conjugados 1D de trans-poliacetileno (TPA). Nossos cálculos mostram que a fração EX ótima (dependente do tamanho) incorporada ao PBEh reproduz com precisão os IPs experimentais determinados em fase gasosa, / Semiconducting conjugated polymers have attracted considerable interest over the past decades due to the promising applications as active components for optoelectronic applications. The suitability of such organic semiconductors for device fabrication relies on quantitative understanding and control of basic electronic properties: fundamental gap (Eg) and ionization potential (IP). In this context, theoretical studies based on first principles approaches have proven useful, through simulating physical processes in ideal conditions, in which one might analyse the electronic properties of polymers apart from the effects of the surrounding environment or structural disorder. Density Functional Theory (DFT) has become an usual choice for calculating the ground state electronic structure of a wide variety of complex organic materials. Although DFT calculations based on total energy differences have been successfully applied to estimate IPs of small molecules, they fail for properties of long conjugated systems. Indeed, the predictive ability of standard DFT with respect to spectroscopic properties is often limited, however a proper treatment of the electronic excitations through many-body approaches is still very difficult for complex organic materials. Hybrid functionals that mix a fraction (_) of nonlocal exact exchange (EX) with the semilocal counterpart represent a good alternative, although the ideal amount of EX is usually system dependent. In this work, we adopt a non-empirical scheme based on the G0W0 approximation to identify the optimum _ value for the PBE hybrid functional for which the self-energy correction to the generalized Kohn-Sham highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) is minimized. Based on this strategy we study the size dependence of the basic electronic properties in a family of 1D _-conjugated oligomers of trans-polyacetylene (TPA). Our calculations demonstrate that the size dependent optimal EX fraction incorporated in PBEh accurately reproduces IPs from experimental gas phase data, although no particular constraint has been imposed a priori. Furthermore, we note that the optimum _-value decreases exponen tially with chain length going from _ w0.85 for the smaller oligomer (ethylene, n=1) up to _ w0.75 extrapolated for an isolated TPA chain. The accuracy of our optimized PBEh in predicting IPs and Eg is superior to other conventional mean field approaches, as demonstrated for a selected set of conjugated molecules such as acenes and phenylenes. As a result, we can obtain good estimations for the energy barriers of electron transfer in organic/organic interfaces. On the other extreme, we analyse the influence of exact exchange on the electronic structure of the prototypical metal system gold (Au), commonly used as electrode in organic devices. In this case, we confirm the expected result that the insertion of even a small fraction of EX into PBE functional distorts the Au band structure, worsening the description of electronic properties compared to regular PBE. We then proceed to analyse the factibility of studying polymer/metal interface systems using pure DFT. Our calculations reveal that the result is too system-dependent: for the TPA/Au(111) interface, an artificial charge transfer takes place at interface due to an underestimation of the IPs of the conjugated system inherent to the underlying DFT approximation. Finally, our study emphasizes the importance of a physically motivated choice of EX fraction in hybrid functionals for accurately predicting both ionization potentials and fundamental gaps of organic semiconductors relevant for nanoelectronics.

The electrically active defects introduced in GaAs by electron beam deposition (EB) of Ta were characterised. The effect of electron beam deposition on the electrical properties of GaAs was evaluated by current-voltage (I-V), capacitance¬voltage (C- V) and deep level transient spectroscopy (DL TS). However, when electronic devices are formed by EB, defects may be introduced into the semiconductor material, depending on the properties of the metal being deposited. Depending on the application, these defects may have either advantages or detrimental effects on the performance of such a device. I-V measurements indicated that the EB induced damage results in an increase in ideality factor and decrease in the barrier height with increasing the applied substrate bias, while C- V measurements showed that EB deposition also caused a decrease in the barrier height. DL TS studies on the same material in the temperature range of 20 - 350 K showed that at least three electrically active defects are introduced during EB deposition, with energies (0.102 ± 0.004, 0.322 ± 0.014 and 0.637 ± 0.029 eV) within the band gap. DL TS data was used to construct concentration profiles of these defects as a function of depth below the surface. It was found that the defect concentration increases with increasing substrate bias during the deposition, irrespective of the direction of the applied bias. This may be related to the I-V characteristics of the SBDs. The SBDs investigated by IV measurements showed that GaAs yields SBDs with poorer characteristic. The influence of EB deposition on the device properties of SBDs fabricated on GaAs is presented. These device properties were monitored using a variable temperature I-V and C- V apparatus. In order to have an understanding of the change in electrical properties of these contacts after EB deposition, it is necessary to characterise the EB induced defects. DL TS was used to characterise the defects in terms of their D L TS signature and defect concentration. / Dissertation (MSc (Physics))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Physics / unrestricted

First-principles calculations have been carried out to investigate structural and electronic properties of graphene on SiC and diamond substrates and for a study of doping of fluorographene with various surface adsorbates. New insight is given into the problem of the decoupling of the graphene layers from SiC substrates after epitaxial growth. Mechanisms of hydrogen penetration between graphene and SiC(0001) surface, and properties of hydrogen and fluorine intercalated structures have been studied. Energy barriers for diffusion of atomic and molecular hydrogen through the interface graphene layer with no defects and graphene layers containing Stone-Wales defect or two- and four-vacancy clusters have been calculated. It is argued that diffusion of hydrogen towards the SiC surface occurs through the hollow defects in the interface graphene layer. It is further shown that hydrogen easily migrates between the graphene layer and the SiC substrate and passivates the surface Si bonds, thus causing the graphene layer decoupling. According to the band structure calculations the graphene layer decoupled from the SiC(0001) surface by hydrogen intercalation is undoped, while that obtained by the fluorine intercalation is p-type doped. Further, structure and the electronic properties of single and double layer graphene on H-, OH-, and F- passivated (111) diamond surface have been studied. It is shown that graphene only weakly interacts with the underlying substrates and the linear dispersion of graphene pi-bands is preserved. For graphene on the hydrogenated diamond surfaces the charge transfer results in n-type doping of graphene layers and the splitting of conduction and valence bands in bilayer graphene. For the F- and OH-terminated surfaces, charge transfer and doping of graphene do not occur. Finally, the possibility of doping fluorographene by surface adsorbates have been investigated. The structure and electronic properties of fluorographene with adsorbed K, Li, Au atoms, and F4-TCNQ molecule are described. It is shown that adsorption of K or Li atoms results in electron doping of fluorographene, while Au atoms and F4-TCNQ introduce deep levels inside the band gap. The calculated value of the fluorographene work function is extremely high, 7.3 eV, suggesting that p-type doping is difficult to achieve.

As diimidas naftálicas simétricas têm sido vastamente estudadas devido suas propriedades químicas, ópticas, e eletrônicas. A possibilidade de modular suas propriedades com a substituição de grupos diversos na formação da imida, viabiliza aplicações em dispositivos eletrônicos, conversão de energia e produção de redes de coordenação metalo-orgânicas. Neste trabalho sintetizou-se uma série de 5 diimidas naftálicas (NDIs) simétricas com substituintes aromáticos. Foram analisadas as características espectroscópicas e eletrônicas com obtenção dos valores de band-gap óptico através de ensaios de voltametria cíclica e cálculos teóricos (DFT), mostrando a influência dos substituintes nas propriedades eletrônicas. Estas moléculas apresentam indícios de agregação em determinados solventes tornando possível a produção de filmes finos. As NDIs produzidas foram intercaladas em uma matriz inorgânica lamelar, o pentóxido de vanádio amorfo, e melhorando consideravelmente, via de regra, a capacidade específica de carga quando analisados em sistemas trocadores de íon lítio, aplicados geralmente em cátodos de bateria, com valores da ordem de 190 mA.h.g-1 (sob 100 uA, variação de E +1,2V à -1,2V). É provavelmente um dos primeiros trabalhos a utilizar NDIs em sistemas mistos de matrizes inorgânicas aplicados em trocadores de íons. Algumas apresentam potencial para dispositivos de conversão de luz em eletricidade. / Symmetric naphthalic diimides have been extensively studied due to their chemical, optical, and electronic properties. The possibility of modulating their properties by substitution with several groups in the formation of imides allows diverse applications in electronic devices, energy conversion, production of metallo-organic frameworks (MOFs). In this thesis, a series of 5 symmetrical aromatic-substituted naphthalic diimides (NDIs) were sinthesized. We have studied their optical and electronic characteristics obtaining optical band-gap with cyclic voltammetry tests and theoretical calculations (DFT), showing the influence of substituent in the electronic properties. Some of these imides may aggregate in certain solvents allowing this way the production thin films. The NDIs were intercalated in the inorganic intercalation matrix of amorphous vanadium pentoxide, and showed generally considerable improvement in the specific charge capacity when used in lithium ion exchange systems, that are usually applied in battery cathodes, reaching values of the order of 190 mA.h.g-1 (under 100 uA, E variation of + 1.2V to -1.2V). This is probably one of the first works using NDIs in mixed systems to applied inorganic matrices as ion exchangers. Some of them may be used for light conversion to electricity devices.

a função espectral mostra uma estrutura bem definida com superfícies de Fermi exibindo uma simetria rotacional de ordem 8 ao redor desse preenchimento, apesar de sua nova estrutura eletrônica, e descobrimos que esses estados são estendidos para a maioria dos preenchimentos, e mostram que, estudamos as propriedades eletrônicas dos mosaicos de Ammann-Beenker, exceto no pseudogap, exceto próximo ao pseudogap. Para estudar a supercondutividade, executamos o escalonamento de tamanho finito do parâmetro de ordem supercondutor e mostramos que ele permanece essencialmente constante, Motivados por uma recente observação experimental de supercondutividade nos quase cristais, onde diminui com o tamanho do aproximante e para valores pequenos da atração U. Isso está de acordo com as observações experimentais, os quasecristais exibem supercondutividade convencional do tipo BCS., ou octogonal, que diz que a energia de Fermi de um quase cristal provavelmente cai sobre um pseudogap. Notavelmente, resolvemos as equações de Bogoliubov-de Gennes e o modelo de pareamento de autovalores exatos para aproximantes de diferentes tamanhos. Em seguida, um exemplo de um quase cristal bidimensional para diferentes tamanhos de aproximantes. O modelo tight-binding resultante mostra uma densidade d / Motivated by a recent experimental observation of superconductivity in the quasicrystals, we study the electronic properties of the Ammann-Beenker, or octagonal tiling, an example of a two-dimensional quasicrystal for different approximant sizes. The resulting tightbinding model shows a very spike density of states and a pseudogap at a filling corresponding to the inverse of the square of the silver ratio. This is a relevant filing due to the Hume-Rothery mechanism, which says that the Fermi energy of a quasicrystal is likely to lie in a pseudogap. Remarkably, the spectral function shows a well-defined structure with Fermi-like pockets displaying an 8-fold rotational symmetry around this filling. We use the Kohn\' localization tensor and the inverse participation ratio to describe the nature of the single-particle eigenstates, and we find that these states are extended for most fillings, except close to the pseudogap. To study the superconductivity, we then solve the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations and paring of exacts eigenstates for approximants of different sizes. We then perform the finite size scaling of the superconducting order parameter and show that it remains constant, except at pseudogap, where it diminishes with the approximant size for small values of the attraction U. This is line with the experimental observations and show that, despite their novel electronic structure, quasicrystals are prone to display conventional BCS-like superconductivity.

Neste trabalho apresentamos um procedimento que utiliza o método de recorrência aliado a uma Hamiltoniana LCAO parametrizada, para avaliar a contribuição dos elétrons d locais ao gradiente de campo elétrico no núcleo (GCE) em ligas de metal de transição. Esta contribuição é geralmente a dominante nestes materiais e de difícil descrição, uma vez que depende das funções de onda eletrônicas que normalmente não são conhecidas. Usamos o método de recorrência para obter a densidade de estados local em torno do átomo considerado e determinamos a ocupação de cada orbital d deste átomo. Calculamos, então, a contribuição eletrônica ao GCE como a soma sobre os orbitais d locais das contribuições de cada orbital. Como ilustração do procedimento sugerido calculamos a contribuição eletrônica para o GCE numa impureza de Fe colocada substitucionalmente numa rede hexagonal de Zr. No cálculo da contribuição de cada orbital d da impureza de Fe para o GCE tomamos funções atômicas, utilizando como parte radial os resultados tabelados por Herman e Skilman por se mostrarem bem representativos na região de interesse. Avaliamos a contribuição da rede ao GCE e verificamos neste caso, como era esperado, que a contribuição eletrônica devido aos elétrons d do Fe é dominante. Nossos resultados se apresentaram em boa concordância com o valor experimental existente na literatura. Uma vez que o método de recorrência não requer periodicidade este tratamento pode ser extendido para investigar a distribuição de GCE em materiais amorfos. / We present here a procedure which uses the recursion method parametrized LCAO Hamiltonian to calculate the electric field gradient (EFG) at the nucleus in transition metal alloys. The main contribution to the EFG in these materials is generally the electronic contribution due to the local d electrons. This contribution is usually difficult to describe since it requires a detailed knowledge of the electronic wave function which are, normally, unknown. The recursion method is used to obtain the local density of states and the occupation number for each of the five d orbitals in the atom considered. The electronic contribution to the EFG is then calculated as a sum over the orbitals of the one-electron contribution multiplied by the corresponding occupation number. To illustrate the procedure proposed, we calculate the electronic contribution to the EFG at the nucleus of an Fe atom taken as a substitutional impurity in hcp Zr. We note that the main contribution of each d orbital to the EFG at the Fe site comes from a region where the local orbital should be very similar to the atomic orbital. Therefore, we have used the radial part of the d wave function for atomic Fe tabulated by Herman and Skillmann, to calculate this contribution. We have evaluated the lattice contribution to the EFG and, as suggested by the literature, we found that contribution is the electronic one, arising from the d electrons at the Fe site. Our results compare well with experimental values available in the literature. Since the recursion method does not require periodicity, the procedure presented here can be extended to investigate the distribution of EFG at the nucleus in amorphous materials.

Neste trabalho apresentamos um procedimento que utiliza o método de recorrência aliado a uma Hamiltoniana LCAO parametrizada, para avaliar a contribuição dos elétrons d locais ao gradiente de campo elétrico no núcleo (GCE) em ligas de metal de transição. Esta contribuição é geralmente a dominante nestes materiais e de difícil descrição, uma vez que depende das funções de onda eletrônicas que normalmente não são conhecidas. Usamos o método de recorrência para obter a densidade de estados local em torno do átomo considerado e determinamos a ocupação de cada orbital d deste átomo. Calculamos, então, a contribuição eletrônica ao GCE como a soma sobre os orbitais d locais das contribuições de cada orbital. Como ilustração do procedimento sugerido calculamos a contribuição eletrônica para o GCE numa impureza de Fe colocada substitucionalmente numa rede hexagonal de Zr. No cálculo da contribuição de cada orbital d da impureza de Fe para o GCE tomamos funções atômicas, utilizando como parte radial os resultados tabelados por Herman e Skilman por se mostrarem bem representativos na região de interesse. Avaliamos a contribuição da rede ao GCE e verificamos neste caso, como era esperado, que a contribuição eletrônica devido aos elétrons d do Fe é dominante. Nossos resultados se apresentaram em boa concordância com o valor experimental existente na literatura. Uma vez que o método de recorrência não requer periodicidade este tratamento pode ser extendido para investigar a distribuição de GCE em materiais amorfos. / We present here a procedure which uses the recursion method parametrized LCAO Hamiltonian to calculate the electric field gradient (EFG) at the nucleus in transition metal alloys. The main contribution to the EFG in these materials is generally the electronic contribution due to the local d electrons. This contribution is usually difficult to describe since it requires a detailed knowledge of the electronic wave function which are, normally, unknown. The recursion method is used to obtain the local density of states and the occupation number for each of the five d orbitals in the atom considered. The electronic contribution to the EFG is then calculated as a sum over the orbitals of the one-electron contribution multiplied by the corresponding occupation number. To illustrate the procedure proposed, we calculate the electronic contribution to the EFG at the nucleus of an Fe atom taken as a substitutional impurity in hcp Zr. We note that the main contribution of each d orbital to the EFG at the Fe site comes from a region where the local orbital should be very similar to the atomic orbital. Therefore, we have used the radial part of the d wave function for atomic Fe tabulated by Herman and Skillmann, to calculate this contribution. We have evaluated the lattice contribution to the EFG and, as suggested by the literature, we found that contribution is the electronic one, arising from the d electrons at the Fe site. Our results compare well with experimental values available in the literature. Since the recursion method does not require periodicity, the procedure presented here can be extended to investigate the distribution of EFG at the nucleus in amorphous materials.

In this study, we used the molecular statics, molecular dynamics, and density function theory to investigate structural, electronic, and mechanical properties of ultra-thin silica nanowires. There are two parts in this study. In the first part, we used basin-hopping method to get different diameters of silica nanowires, nemed 2MR, 2MR-2O, 3MR-3O, 4MR-4O, 5MR-5O, 4MR-3f, 4MR-4f, and 4MR-5f. The various silica nanowires were optimized by density function theory to obtain the projected density of states, Mulliken charge, and electronic density difference, and we also compared this results to £\-quartz. In the second part, the molecular dynamics simulations were performed to investigate deformation behavior of silica nanowires under axial tensile loading at 10K. The Young¡¦s modulus increases when the diameter decreases. We also used angular correlation function to study the mechanical properties and variation of structures.

In this thesis, mechanical and electronic properties of a (4,4) SiC nanotube under different tensile strain were investigated by density functional theory (DFT) calculation. The HOMO-LUMO gap of nanotube will significantly decrease linearly with the increase of axial strain. Two different slopes are found before and after an 11% strain in the profile of HOMO-LUMO gap versus strain. The partial density of states, bond order and electronic deformation density were discussed for demonstrating the strain effect on the electronic properties of SiC nanotube under axial strain. The adsorption mechanism of CO on SiC nanotubes with different axial strains as well as the charge distributions after the adsorption were also discussed.