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- Castleton, Christopher, 1969-, et al.
(author)
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Benchmarking Density Functional Theory Functionals for Polarons in Oxides : Properties of CeO2
- 2019
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In: The Journal of Physical Chemistry C. - : American Chemical Society. - 1932-7447 .- 1932-7455. ; 123:9, s. 5164-5175
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We examine methods for studying polarons in metal oxides with density functional theory (DFT), using the example of cerium dioxide and the functionals, local density approximation + U (LDA+U), generalized gradient approximation + U (GGA+U) in the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof parametrization (PBE+U), as well as the hybrid functionals B3LYP, Heyd?Scuseria?Ernzerhof (HSE)03, HSE06, and PBE0. We contrast the four polaron energies commonly reported in different parts of the literature: formation energy, localization/relaxation energy, density-of-states level, and polaron-hopping activation barrier. Qualitatively, all these functionals predict "small" (Holstein) polarons on the scale of a single lattice site, although LDA+U and GGA+U are more effective than the hybrids at localizing the Ce 4f electrons. The improvements over pure LDA/GGA appear because of changes in the filled Ce 4f states when using LDA/GGA+U but due to changes in the empty Ce 4f states when using the hybrids. DFT is shown to have sufficient correlation to predict both adiabatic and (approximate) diabatic hopping barriers. Overall, LDA+U = 6 eV provides the best description in comparison to the experiment, followed by GGA+U = 5 eV. The hybrids are worse, tending to overestimate the gap and significantly underestimate the polaron-hopping barriers.
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| 2. |
- Wolf, Matthew J., et al.
(author)
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STM Images of Anionic Defects at CeO2(111)-A Theoretical Perspective
- 2019
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In: Frontiers in Chemistry. - : FRONTIERS MEDIA SA. - 2296-2646. ; 7
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We present a theoretically oriented analysis of the appearance and properties of plausible candidates for the anionic defects observed in scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) experiments on CeO2(111). The simulations are based on density functional theory (DFT) and cover oxygen vacancies, fluorine impurities and hydroxyl groups in the surface and sub-surface layers. In the surface layer, all three appear as missing spots in the oxygen sublattice in filled state simulated STM images, but they are distinguishable in empty state images, where surface oxygen vacancies and hydroxyls appear as, respectively, diffuse and sharp bright features at oxygen sites, while fluorine defects appear as triangles of darkened Ce ions. In the sub-surface layer, all three defects present more complex patterns, with different combinations of brightened oxygen ion triangles and/or darkened Ce ion triangles, so we provide image maps to support experimental identification. We also discuss other properties that could be used to distinguish the defects, namely their diffusion rates and distributions.
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