The effect of long-range order on intermolecular interactions in organic semiconductors: zinc octaethyl porphyrin molecular thin film model systems.

In order to optimize the performance of devices based on porphyrin thin films it is of great importance to gain a physical understanding of the various factors which affect their charge transport and light-harvesting properties. In this work, we have employed a multi-technique approach to study vacuum deposited zinc octaethyl porphyrin (ZnOEP) thin films with different degrees of long-range order as model systems. An asymmetrical stretching of the skeletal carbon atoms of the porphyrin conformer has been observed and attributed to ordered molecular stacking and intermolecular interactions. For ordered films, a detailed fitting analysis of the X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) using the MXAN code establishes a symmetry reduction in the molecular conformer involving the skeletal carbon atoms of the porphyrin ring; this highlights the consequences of increased π-π stacking of ZnOEP molecules adopting the triclinic structure. The observed asymmetrical stretching of the π conjugation network of the porphyrin structure can have significant implications for charge transport and light harvesting, significantly influencing the performance of porphyrin based devices.

Ab initio investigation of electronic and vibrational contributions to linear and nonlinear dielectric properties of ice.

Electronic and vibrational contributions to the static and dynamic (hyper)polarizability tensors of ice XI and model structures of ordinary hexagonal ice have been theoretically investigated. Calculations were carried out by the finite field nuclear relaxation method for periodic systems (FF-NR) recently implemented in the CRYSTAL code, using the coupled-perturbed Kohn-Sham approach (CPKS) for evaluating the required electronic properties. The effect of structure on the static electronic polarizabilities (dielectric constants) and second-hyperpolarizabilities is minimal. On the other hand, the vibrational contributions to the polarizabilities were found to be significant. A reliable evaluation of these (ionic) contributions allows one to discriminate amongst ice phases characterized by different degrees of proton-order, primarily through differences caused by librational motions. Transverse static and dynamic vibrational (hyper)polarizabilities were found by extrapolating calculations for slabs of increasing size, in order to eliminate substantial surface contributions.

He-atom scattering from MgO(100): calculating diffraction peak intensities with a semi ab initio potential.

An efficient model describing the He-atom scattering process is presented. The He-surface interaction potential is calculated from first principles by exploiting second-order Rayleigh-Schrödinger many-body perturbation theory and fitted by using a variety of pairwise interaction potentials. The attractive part of the fitted analytical form has been upscaled to compensate the underestimation of the well depth for this system in the perturbation theory description. The improved potential has been introduced in the close-coupling method to calculate the diffraction pattern. Quantitative agreement between the computed and observed binding energy and diffraction intensities for the He-MgO(100) system is achieved. It is expected that the utility of He scattering for probing dynamical processes at surfaces will be significantly enhanced by this quantitative description.

Periodic ab initio estimates of the dispersive interaction between molecular nitrogen and a monolayer of hexagonal BN.

The ab initio determination of the leading long-range term of pairwise additive dispersive interactions, based on the independent analysis of the response properties of the interacting objects, is here considered in the case where these are part of a periodic system. The interaction of a nitrogen molecule with a thin film of hexagonal BN has been chosen as a case study for identifying some of the problems involved, and for proposing techniques for their solution. In order to validate the results so obtained, the interaction energy between N(2) and a BN monolayer at different distances has been estimated following a totally different approach, namely by performing post-Hartree-Fock (MP2) supercell calculations using the Crystal+Cryscor suite of programs. The results obtained with the two approaches closely agree over a long range, while the limit of validity of the purely dispersive regime can be clearly assessed.

A post-Hartree-Fock study of pressure-induced phase transitions in solid nitrogen: the case of the α, γ, and ε low-pressure phases.

We have performed fully periodic ab initio post-Hartree-Fock calculations on three low-temperature molecular phases of solid nitrogen, namely α, γ, and ε. The aim is to characterize the pressure-induced transitions among these phases, which are prototypical molecular crystals, through a periodic local-MP2 method, implemented in the CRYSCOR program. Cohesive energies are computed using extended correlation consistent molecular basis sets, up to quintuple-ζ quality. The MP2 description of equilibrium volumes, pressure-volume curves, and transition pressures is found to be in good agreement with the experiments.

Periodic quantum mechanical simulation of the He-MgO(100) interaction potential.

He-atom scattering is a well established and valuable tool for investigating surface structure. The correct interpretation of the experimental data requires an accurate description of the He-surface interaction potential. A quantum-mechanical treatment of the interaction potential is presented using the current dominant methodologies for computing ground state energies (Hartree-Fock, local and hybrid-exchange density functional theory) and also a novel post-Hartree-Fock ab initio technique for periodic systems (a local implementation of Mo̸ller-Plesset perturbation theory at second order). The predicted adsorption well depth and long range behavior of the interaction are compared with that deduced from experimental data in order to assess the accuracy of the interaction potential.

Local-MP2 electron correlation method for nonconducting crystals.

Rigorous methods for the post-HF (HF-Hartree-Fock) determination of correlation corrections for crystalline solids are currently being developed following different strategies. The CRYSTAL program developed in Torino and Daresbury provides accurate HF solutions for periodic systems in a basis set of Gaussian type functions; for insulators, the occupied HF manifold can be represented as an antisymmetrized product of well localized Wannier functions. This makes possible the extension to nonconducting crystals of local correlation linear scaling On techniques as successfully and efficiently implemented in Stuttgart's MOLPRO program. These methods exploit the fact that dynamic electron correlation effects between remote parts of a molecule (manifesting as dispersive interactions in intermolecular perturbation theory) decay as an inverse sixth power of the distance R between these fragments, that is, much more quickly than the Coulomb interactions that are treated already at the HF level. Translational symmetry then permits the crystalline problem to be reduced to one concerning a cluster around the reference zero cell. A periodic local correlation program (CRYSCOR) has been prepared along these lines, limited for the moment to the solution of second-order Moller-Plesset equations. Exploitation of point group symmetry is shown to be more important and useful than in the molecular case. The computational strategy adopted and preliminary results concerning five semiconductors with tetrahedral structure (C, Si, SiC, BN, and BeS) are presented and discussed.