The purpose of the research work, presented in this thesis is to offer a detailed atomic level study of interfaces created by adsorption of organic molecules on metals and metal oxides to point out significant impact of substrate, dye structure as well as different mediators on the charge transfer at these interfaces, which is proven to influence the device performance to a great extent. Adsorption of organic photosensitive molecules on metals and metal-oxides is the main focus of this thesis. Phthalocyanines which are organic semiconductors offer a broad range of properties, such as thermal and chemical stability, high charge mobility and strong absorption coefficient in the visible and near-IR regions, which make them very attractive to be applied in various systems and devices. Fuel cells, organic field-effect transistors (OFETs), organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) and solar cells are examples of phthalocyanine’s applications. The main focus of this work is to characterize the interfaces of Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs). DSSC was invented by Michael Grätzel and Brian O’Regan in 1988. At the heart of this cell there is an oxide which is coated by a photosensitive dye. Under illumination, an electron is excited from HOMO to LUMO of the molecule, which can be further transferred to the conduction band of the oxide by a proper energy level alignment. The original state of the dye is regenerated by electron donation via the electrolyte, which usually is an organic solvent containing a redox couple e.g., iodide/triiodide. The iodide is regenerated by reduction of triiodide at the counter electrode. To improve the functionality of the cell, different additives can be added to the electrolyte. To mimic the interfaces of this cell, molecular layers of MPc (M: Fe, Zn, Mg) are adsorbed on both metallic surfaces, Au(111) and Pt(111), and rutile TiO2(110). Layers of iodine were inserted between metallic substrates and dyes to investigate the electronic properties and charge transfer at these multi-interface systems. 4-tert-butyl pyridine is a significant additive to the electrolyte and has proven to enhance the cell’s performance. This molecule was also adsorbed on Pt(111) and TiO2(110). Phthalocyanines were deposited by organic molecular beam deposition and 4TBP was evaporated at room temperature. Surface structures and reconstructions were confirmed by LEED measurements. Surface sensitive synchrotron radiation based spectroscopy methods, XPS and NEXAFS were applied to characterize these surfaces and interfaces. STM images directly give a topographical and electronic map over the surface. All measurements were carried out in UHV condition. When MPc was adsorbed on Au(111) and TiO2(110), charge transfer from molecule to substrate is suggested, while the opposite holds for MPc adsorbed on Pt(111). Moreover, stronger interaction between MPc and Pt(111) and TiO2(110) compared to Au(111) also demonstrates the effect of substrate on the charge transfer at the interface. The stronger interaction observed for these two substrates disturbed the smooth growth of a monolayer; it also resulted in bending of the molecular plane. Interaction of MPc with metallic surfaces was modified by inserting iodine at the interface. Another substrate-related effect was observed when MgPc was adsorbed on TiO2(110);  and -cross linked surfaces, where the surface reconstruction directly affect the molecular configuration as well as electronic structure at the interface. Besides, it is shown that the d-orbital filling of the central metal atom in MPc plays an important role for the properties of the molecular layer as well as charge transfer at the interface. Upon adsorption of 4TBP on Pt(111), C-H bond is dissociatively broken and molecules is adsorbed with N atoms down. Modification of surface by iodine, prevent this dissociation. In the low coverage of iodine, there is a competition between 4TBP and iodine to directly bind to Pt(111). Investigation on the adsorption of 4TBP on TiO2(110) illustrated that these molecules in low coverage regime, prefer the oxygen vacancy sites and their adsorption on these sites, results in a downward band bending at the substrate’s surface. / <p>QC 20131203</p>

It has been shown recently that high-quality epitaxial graphene (EPG) can be grown on the SiC substrate that exhibits interesting physical properties and has great advantages for varies device applications. In particular, the multilayer graphene films grown on the C-face show rotational disorder. It is expected that the twisted layers exhibit unique new physics that is distinct from that of either single layer graphene or graphite. In this work, by combining density functional and tight-binding model calculations, we investigate the electric field and doping effects on twisted bilayer graphene (TBG), multiple layer effects on twisted triple-layer graphene, and wave packet propagation properties of TBG. Though these studies, we obtain a comprehensive description of the interesting interlayer interaction in this twisted multilayer graphene system.

The sizes, shapes, relaxed atomic positions, eigenvalues, and total energies are calculated for selected ultra-small CdSe clusters using SIESTA, a software package for electronic structure calculations and molecular dynamics simulations of molecules and solids. The properties of these bare clusters with small numbers of constituent atoms are studied using density functional theory (DFT) for energy calculations and the conjugate gradient approximation as well as simulated annealing type of molecular dynamics techniques in relaxing the structure to find the lowest energy configurations.The ab-initio norm-conserving pseudopotentials, the exchange-correlation approximation, and parameters used in the computations by Siesta software is verified using FHI98PP, a package used to generate and test the ab-initio norm-conserving pseudopotentials. The initial position of the atomic co-ordinates is determined using ancillary software written in Matlab. / Department of Physics and Astronomy

Within recent years, allotropic structures of carbon have been produced in the forms of tubes and ribbons which offer the promise of extraordinary electronic and thermal properties. Here we present analyses of oligophenyl and oligoacene systems–infinite, one-dimensional chains of benzene rings linked along the armchair and zigzag directions. These one-dimensional structures, which are amenable to calculation by analytical means, exhibit features very similar to carbon nanotubes and nanoribbons. Using a tight-binding Hamiltonian we analytically determine the density of states, local density of states, and energy-band structure for the phenyl and the acene. We also examine the effect of disorder on the energies and the corresponding states. / Department of Physics and Astronomy

In the present thesis the electronic properties of two organic molecules were studied by means of density functional theory (DFT) in connection to their possible applications in organic photovoltaics and molecular spintronics respectively. The first analysed system is the C60 derivative PCBM extensively used in polymer solar cells for the charge separation process. Since fullerenes have been shown to undergo modifications as a result of light exposure, investigating their electronic structure is the first step in elucidating the photodegradation process. The electronic excitations from core levels to unoccupied molecular orbitals reveal not only the empty level structure of the molecule, but provide additional information related to the chemical bonds involving a specific atom type. In this way, they represent a means of determining the chemical changes that the molecule might withstand. The electronic transitions from carbon 1s core levels to unoccupied states are explained for the unmodified PCBM by a joint theoretical (DFT) and experimental study using the near edge x-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy. The second investigated system is the transition metal phthalocyanine with a manganese atom as the metal center. Manganese phthalocyanine (MnPc) is a single molecular magnet in which the spin switch process can be triggered by various methods. It has been shown, for instance, that the adsorption of hydrogen to the Mn center changes the spin state of the molecule from 3/2 to 1. More interestingly, the process is reversible and can be controlled, opening up the possibility of using MnPc as a quantum bit in magnetic memory devices. Up to this date, the d orbital occupation in MnPc has been under a long debate, both theoretical and experimental studies revealing different configurations. In this thesis the electronic structure of the phthalocyanine is thoroughly analysed by means of DFT and the calculated results are compared to photoelectron spectroscopy measurements. The combination of theoretical and experimental tools reveals that in gas phase at high temepratures the molecule exhibits a mixed electronic configuration. In this light, the possible control of the specific electronic state of the central metal represents an interesting prospect for molecular spintronics.

This thesis focuses on the chemical concept of conjugation, i.e., electron delocalization, and the effect it has on electronic and optical properties of molecules. The emphasis is on electron delocalization across a saturated σ-bonded segment, and in our studies these segments are either inserted between π-conjugated moieties or joined together to form longer chains. The electronic and optical properties of these compounds are probed and compared to those of traditionally π-conjugated compounds. The investigations utilize a combination of qualitative chemical bonding theories, quantum chemical calculations, chemical syntheses and different spectroscopic methods. Herein, it is revealed that a saturated σ-bonded segment inserted between two π-systems can have optical and electronic properties similar to a cross-conjugated compound when substituents with heavy Group 14 elements (Si, Ge or Sn) are attached to the central atom. We coined the terminology cross-hyperconjugation for this interaction, and have shown it by both computational and spectroscopic means. This similarity is also found in cyclic compounds, for example in the 1,4-disilacyclohexa-2,5-dienes, as we reveal that there is a cyclic aspect of cross-hyperconjugation. Cross-hyperconjugation can further also be found in smaller rings such as siloles and cyclopentadienes, and we show on the similarities between these and their cross-π-conjugated analogues, the fulvenes. Here, this concept is combined with that of excited state aromaticity and the electronic properties of these systems are rationalized in terms of “aromatic chameleon” effects. We show that the optical properties of these systems can be rationally tuned and predicted through the choice of substituents and knowledge about the aromaticity rules in both ground and excited states. We computationally examine the relation between conjugation and conductance and reveal that oligomers of 1,4-disilacyclohexa-2,5-dienes and related analogues can display molecular cord properties. The conductance through several σ-conjugated silicon compounds were also examined and show that mixed silicon and carbon bicyclo[2.2.2]octane compounds do not provide significant benefits over the open-chain oligosilanes. However, cyclohexasilanes, a synthetic precursor to the bicyclic compounds, displayed conformer-dependent electronic structure variations that were not seen for cyclohexanes. This allowed for computational design of a mechanically activated conductance switch.

No description available.

There are significant differences between experiment and theoretical calculations of the electronic structure of GaSb/GaAs self-assembled quantum dots. Using a multi-band effective mass approximation it is shown that the influence of size and geometry of quantum dots has little or no effect in determining the hydrostatic strain. Furthermore, the valenceband ground state energies of the quantum dots studied are surprisingly consistent. This apparent paradox attributed to the influence of biaxial strain in shaping the heavy-hole and light-hole potentials. Consequently, it is shown that a simple, hydrostatically derived potential is insufficient to accurately describe the electronic structure of such quantum dots. In addition, using the latest experimental results measuring the conductionband offset, it has been shown that much better experimental contact may be achieved for the magnitude of the transition energies derived compared to theoretically derived transition energies. The transition energies of Si/Ge self-assembled quantum dots has also been calculated. In particular, a range of quantum dot structures have been proposed that are predicted to have an optical response in the 3-5 micron range.

Ferromagnetic shape memory alloys FSMAs have diverse application, especially in the aerospace and bio-medical industries. They are a class of active and smart materials exhibiting strains under the influence of an applied magnetic field. These magnetic properties are mainly attributed to the martensitic structural phase trans- formation these material experience in response to temperature variation. Co-Ni-Al based alloys are one of the most promising ferromagnetic shape memory alloy FSMA that has been put recently under extensive study by researchers. They have shown extensive and promising features specifically those related to self-actuation. The effect of valence electron concentration and magnetic properties of Co-Ni-Al based ferromagnetic shape memory alloys on the martensitic transformations were analyzed utilizing Ab-initio first principle calculations. The variations of martensite start temperatures (Ms) and magnetic properties of a number of stoichiometric and mnon-stoichiometric Co-Ni-Al ferromagnetic shape memory alloys (FSMA’s) with B2 austenite structure were studied and analyzed as a function of composition and lattice site ordering and site preference. A major conclusion of this thesis suggests that the magnetic valence number (Zm) should be considered in conjunction to the e/a ratio if the composition profile of the Ms is to be determined. Both Monte-Carlo and Ab-initio simulations were implemented to obtain the magnetic Heisenberg’s exchange coupling parameters (J m) and model the magnetic transformations in stoichiometric Co2NiAl FSMAs. Two different cubic structures, ordered and disordered were compared to their tetragonal distortions martensitic phases and their Curie temperature (TC ) were obtained from the Monte-Carlo magnetic susceptibility temperature profile.

An efficient numerical method for solving Schr&ouml / dinger&#039 / s and Poisson&#039 / s equations using a basis set of cubic B-splines is investigated. The method is applied to find both the wave functions and the corresponding eigenenergies of low-dimensional semiconductor structures. The computational efficiency of the method is explicitly shown by the multiresolution analysis, non-uniform grid construction and imposed boundary conditions by applying it to well-known single electron potentials. The method compares well with the results of analytical solutions and of the finite difference method.