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Two-dimensional (2D) materials can be used as stabilizing templates for exotic nanostructures, including pore-stabilized, free-standing patches of elemental metal monolayers. Although these patches represent metal clusters under extreme conditions and are thus bound for investigations, they are poorly understood as their energetic stability trends and the most promising elements remain unknown. Here, using density-functional theory simulations and the liquid drop model to explore the properties of 45 elemental metal candidates, we identify metals that enable the largest and most stable patches. Simulations show that pores can stabilize patches up to â¼8 nm2 areas and that the most prominent candidate in a graphene template is Cu. The results, which are generalizable to templates also beyond graphene, provide encouragement for further, even more resolute experimental pursuit of 2D metals.
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In nanofabrication, just as in any other craft, the scale of spatial details is limited by the dimensions of the tool at hand. For example, the smallest details of direct laser writing with far-field light are set by the diffraction limit, which is approximately half of the used wavelength. In this work, we overcome this universal assertion by optically forging graphene ripples that show features with dimensions unlimited by diffraction. Thin sheet elasticity simulations suggest that the scaled-down ripples originate from the interplay between substrate adhesion, in-plane strain, and circular symmetry. The optical forging technique thus offers an accurate way to modify and shape 2D materials and facilitates the creation of controllable nanostructures for plasmonics, resonators, and nano-optics.
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BACKGROUND: Productive learning processes and good learning outcomes can be attained by applying the basic elements of active learning. The basic elements include fostering discussions and disputations, facing alternative conceptions, and focusing on conceptual understanding. However, in the face of poor course retention and high dropout rates, even learning outcomes can become of secondary importance. To address these challenges, we developed a research-based instructional strategy, the primetime learning model. We devised the model by organizing the basic elements of active learning into a theory-based four-step study process. The model is based on collaborative and technology-enhanced learning, on versatile formative assessment without a final exam, and on genuine teacher presence through intimate meetings between students and teachers. RESULTS: We piloted the model in two university physics courses on thermodynamics and optics and observed persistent student activity, improved retention, and good learning outcomes. Feedback suggested that most students were satisfied with the learning experience. CONCLUSIONS: The model suits particularly well for courses that, in addition to the teaching subject itself, focus on teaching balanced study habits and strengthening social integration. By its very construction, it also helps the propagation of research-based instructional strategies. Although the model does contain challenges, it represents a generic framework for learning and teaching that is flexible for further development and applicable to many subjects and levels.
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Atomically thin materials, such as graphene, are the ultimate building blocks for nanoscale devices. But although their synthesis and handling today are routine, all efforts thus far have been restricted to flat natural geometries, since the means to control their three-dimensional (3D) morphology has remained elusive. Here we show that, just as a blacksmith uses a hammer to forge a metal sheet into 3D shapes, a pulsed laser beam can forge a graphene sheet into controlled 3D shapes in the nanoscale. The forging mechanism is based on laser-induced local expansion of graphene, as confirmed by computer simulations using thin sheet elasticity theory.
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We present a self-consistent charge density-functional tight-binding (SCC-DFTB) parametrization for PtRu alloys, which is developed by employing a training set of alloy cluster energies and forces obtained from Kohn-Sham density-functional theory (DFT) calculations. Extensive simulations of a testing set of PtRu alloy nanoclusters show that this SCC-DFTB scheme is capable of capturing cluster formation energies with high accuracy relative to DFT calculations. The new SCC-DFTB parametrization is employed within a genetic algorithm to search for global minima of PtRu clusters in the range of 13-81 atoms and the emergence of Ru-core/Pt-shell structures at intermediate alloy compositions, consistent with known results, is systematically demonstrated. Our new SCC-DFTB parametrization enables computationally inexpensive and accurate modeling of Pt-Ru clusters that are among the best-performing catalysts in numerous energy applications.
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While understanding the properties of materials under stress is fundamentally important, designing experiments to probe the effects of large tensile stress is difficult. Here tensile stress is created in thin films of potassium (up to 4 atomic layers) by epitaxial growth on a rigid support, graphite. We find that this "simple" metal shows a long-range, periodic "herringbone" reconstruction, observed in 2- and 3- (but not 1- and 4-) layer films by low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Such a pattern has never been observed in a simple metal. Density functional theory (DFT)simulations indicate that the reconstruction consists of self-aligned stripes of enhanced atom density formed to relieve the tensile strain. At the same time marked layer-dependent charging effects lead to substantial variation in the apparent STM layer heights.
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The discovery of graphene some ten years ago was the first proof of a free-standing two-dimensional (2D) solid phase. Here, using quantum molecular dynamics simulations of nanoscale gold patches suspended in graphene pores, we predict the existence of an atomically thin, free-standing 2D liquid phase. The liquid phase, enabled by the exceptional planar stability of gold due to relativistic effects, demonstrates extreme fluxionality of metal nanostructures and opens possibilities for a variety of nanoscale phenomena.
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Today graphene nanoribbons and other graphene-based nanostructures can be synthesized with atomic precision. But while investigations have concentrated on straight graphene ribbons of fixed crystal orientation, ribbons with intrinsic curvature have remained mainly unexplored. Here, we investigate electronic transport in intrinsically curved graphene nanoribbons coupled to straight leads using two computational approaches. Stationary approach shows how transport gaps are affected both by the straight leads and by the degree of edge asymmetry in the curved ribbons. An advanced time-dependent approach shows that behind the façade of calm stationary transport the currents run violently: curvature triggers temporally and spatially focused electric currents, to the extent that for short durations single carbon-carbon bonds carry currents far exceeding the steady-state currents in the entire ribbons. Recognizing this focusing is pivotal for a robust design of graphene sensors and circuitries.
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Atomic manipulation in the scanning tunnelling microscopy, conventionally a tool to build nanostructures one atom at a time, is here employed to enable the atomic-scale imaging of a model low-dimensional system. Specifically, we use low-temperature STM to investigate an ultra thin film (4 atomic layers) of potassium created by epitaxial growth on a graphite substrate. The STM images display an unexpected honeycomb feature, which corresponds to a real-space visualization of the Wigner-Seitz cells of the close-packed surface K atoms. Density functional simulations indicate that this behaviour arises from the elastic, tip-induced vertical manipulation of potassium atoms during imaging, i.e. elastic atomic manipulation, and reflects the ultrasoft properties of the surface under strain. The method may be generally applicable to other soft e.g. molecular or biomolecular systems.
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Monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) display valley-selective circular dichroism due to the presence of time-reversal symmetry and the absence of inversion symmetry, making them promising candidates for valleytronics. In contrast, in bilayer TMDCs both symmetries are present and these desirable valley-selective properties are lost. Here, by using density-functional tight-binding electronic structure simulations and revised periodic boundary conditions, we show that bending of bilayer MoS2 sheets breaks band degeneracies and localizes states on separate layers due to bending-induced strain gradients across the sheets. We propose a strategy for employing bending deformations in bilayer TMDCs as a simple yet effective means of dynamically and reversibly tuning their band gaps while simultaneously tuning valley-selective physics.
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The discovery of two-dimensional materials became possible due to the mechanical cleavage technique. Despite its simplicity, the as-cleaved materials demonstrated surprising macro-continuity, high crystalline quality and extraordinary mechanical and electrical properties that triggered global research interest. Here such cleavage processes and associated mechanical behaviours are investigated by a direct in situ transmission electron microscopy probing technique, using atomically thin molybdenum disulphide layers as a model material. Our technique demonstrates layer number selective cleavage, from a monolayer to double layer and up to 23 atomic layers. In situ observations combined with molecular dynamics simulations reveal unique layer-dependent bending behaviours, from spontaneous rippling (<5 atomic layers) to homogeneous curving (~ 10 layers) and finally to kinking (20 or more layers), depending on the competition of strain energy and interfacial energy.
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We have carried out first-principles calculations to investigate how the electronic and optical features of graphene nanoribbons are affected by the presence of atomic clusters. Aluminum clusters of different sizes and stabilized by organic ligands were deposited on graphene nanoribbons from which the energetic features of the adsorption plus electronic structure were treated within density-functional theory. Our results point out that, depending on their size and structure shape, the clusters perturb distinctively the electronic properties of the ribbons. We suggest that such selective response can be measured through optical means revealing that graphene nanoribbons can work as an efficient characterization medium of atomic clusters. In addition, we demonstrate that atomic clusters can fine-tune the electronic and spin-polarized states of graphene ribbons from which novel spin-filter devices could be designed.
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Although sheets of layered van der Waals solids offer great opportunities to custom-design nanomaterial properties, their weak interlayer adhesion challenges structural stability against mechanical deformation. Here, bending-induced delamination of multilayer sheets is investigated by molecular dynamics simulations, using graphene as an archetypal van der Waals solid. The simulations show that delamination of a graphene sheet occurs when its radius of curvature decreases roughly below Rc = 5.3 nm × (number of layers)(3/2) and that, as a rule, one-third of the layers get delaminated. These clear results are explained by a general and transparent model, a useful future reference for guiding the design of nanostructured van der Waals solids.
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Topology is familiar mostly from mathematics, but also natural sciences have found its concepts useful. Those concepts have been used to explain several natural phenomena in biology and physics, and they are particularly relevant for the electronic structure description of topological insulators and graphene systems. Here, we introduce topologically distinct graphene forms - graphene spirals - and employ density-functional theory to investigate their geometric and electronic properties. We found that the spiral topology gives rise to an intrinsic Rashba spin-orbit splitting. Through a Hamiltonian constrained by space curvature, graphene spirals have topologically protected states due to time-reversal symmetry. In addition, we argue that the synthesis of such graphene spirals is feasible and can be achieved through advanced bottom-up experimental routes that we indicate in this work.
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The operation principles of nanoscale devices are based upon both electronic and mechanical properties of materials. Because these properties can be coupled, they need to be investigated simultaneously. At this moment, however, the electronic structure calculations with custom-made long-range mechanical distortions are impossible, or expensive at best. Here we present a unified formalism to solve exactly the electronic structures of nanomaterials with versatile distortions. We illustrate the formalism by investigating twisted armchair graphene nanoribbons with the least possible number of atoms. Apart from enabling versatile material distortions, the formalism is capable of reducing computational costs orders of magnitude in various areas of science and engineering.
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Planar reconstruction patterns at the zigzag and armchair edges of graphene were investigated with density-functional theory. It was unexpectedly found that the zigzag edge is metastable and a planar reconstruction spontaneously takes place at room temperature. The reconstruction changes electronic structure and self-passivates the edge with respect to adsorption of atomic hydrogen from a molecular atmosphere.
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The thermodynamics of gold cluster anions (AuN-, N=11,...,14) is investigated using quantum molecular dynamics. Our simulations suggest that AuN- may exhibit a novel, freestanding planar liquid phase which dynamically coexists with a normal three-dimensional liquid. Upon cooling with experimentally realizable cooling rates, the entropy-favored three-dimensional liquid clusters often supercool and solidify into the "wrong" dimensionality. This indicates that experimental validation of theoretically predicted AuN- ground states might be more complicated than hitherto expected.
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Ground-state structures and other experimentally relevant isomers of Au(15) (-) to Au(24) (-) clusters are determined through joint first-principles density functional theory and photoelectron spectroscopy measurements. Subsequent calculations of molecular O(2) adsorption to the optimal cluster structures reveal a size-dependent reactivity pattern that agrees well with earlier experiments. A detailed analysis of the underlying electronic structure shows that the chemical reactivity of the gold cluster anions can be elucidated in terms of a partial-jellium picture, where delocalized electrons occupying electronic shells move over the ionic skeleton, whose geometric structure is strongly influenced by the directional bonding associated with the highly localized "d-band" electrons.
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We introduce a simple local atomic structure optimization algorithm which is significantly faster than standard implementations of the conjugate gradient method and often competitive with more sophisticated quasi-Newton schemes typically used in ab initio calculations. It is based on conventional molecular dynamics with additional velocity modifications and adaptive time steps. The surprising efficiency and especially the robustness and versatility of the method is illustrated using a variety of test cases from nanoscience, solid state physics, materials research, and biochemistry.
