Spin-crossover （SCO） magnets can act as one of the most possible building blocks in molec- ular spintronics due to their magnetic bistability between the high-spin （HS） and low-spin （LS） states. Here, the electronic structures and transport properties through SCO magnet Fe（II）-N4S2 complexes sandwiched between gold electrodes are explored by performing exten- sive density functional theory calculations combined with non-equilibrium Green＇s function formalism. The optimized Fe-N and Fe-S distances and predicted magnetic moment of the SCO magnet Fe（II）-N4S2 complexes agree well with the experimental results. The reversed spin transition between the HS and LS states can be realized by visible light irradiation according to the estimated SCO energy barriers. Based on the obtained transport results, we observe nearly perfect spin-filtering effect in this SCO magnet Fe（II）-N4S2 junction with the HS state, and the corresponding current under small bias voltage is mainly contributed by the spin-down electrons, which is obviously larger than that of the LS case. Clearly, these theoretical findings suggest that SCO magnet Fe（II）-N4S2 complexes hold potential applications in molecular spintronies.
The atomic geometries, electronic structures, and formation energies of neutral nitrogen im- purities in ZnO have been investigated by first-principles calculations. The nitrogen impuri- ties are always deep acceptors, thus having no contributions to p-type conductivity. Among all the neutral nitrogen impurities, nitrogen substituting on an oxygen site has the lowest formation energy and the shallowest acceptor level, while nitrogen .substituting on a zinc site has the second-lowest formation energy in oxygen-rich conditions. Nitrogen interstitials are unstable at the tetrahedral site and spontaneously relax into a kick-out configuration. Though nitrogen may occupy the octahedral site, the concentrations will be low for the high formation energy. The charge density distributions in various doping cases are discussed, and self-consistent results are obtained.
Adsorption behavior and electronic structure of tin-phthalocyanine (SnPc) on Ag(111) surface with Sn-up and Sn-down conformations are investigated using first-principles calculations. Two predicted adsorption configurations agree well with the experimentally determined structures. SnPc molecule energetically prefers to adsorb on Ag(111) surface with Sn-down conformation. The energy required to move the central Sn atom through the frame of a phthalocyanine molecule, switching from the Sn-up to Sn-down conformation, is about 1.68 eV. The simulated scanning tunneling microscopy images reproduce the main features of experimental observations. Moreover, the experimentally proposed hole attachment mechanism is verified based on the calculated density of states of SnPc on Ag(111) with three different adsorption configurations.
We explore the electronic and transport properties of zigzag graphene nanoribbons （GNRs） with nitrogen-vacancy defects by performing fully self-consistent spin-polarized density functional theory calculations combined with non-equilibrium Green＇s function technique. We observe robust negative di erential resistance （NDR） effect in all examined molecular junctions. Through analyzing the calculated electronic structures and the bias-dependent transmission coefficients, we find that the narrow density of states of electrodes and the bias-dependent effective coupling between the central molecular orbitals and the electrode subbands are responsible for the observed NDR phenomenon. In addition, the obvious di erence of the transmission spectra of two spin channels is observed in some bias ranges, which leads to the near perfect spin-filtering effect. These theoretical findings imply that GNRs with nitrogenvacancy defects hold great potential for building molecular devices.
We present a first-principles study on the geometric, vibrational and electronic properties of a novel Y-based non-scandium mixed-metal nitride clusterfullerene （TiY2N@C80）. Theoretical results indicate that the fundamental electronic properties of TiY2N@C80 are similar to that of TiSc2N@C80, but dramatically different from that of ScaN@C800 and YaN@C80 molecules. We find that the magnetism of TiY2N@C80 is quenched by carrier doping. The rotation energy barrier of the TiY2N cluster in C80 cage was obviously increased by exohedral chemical modification with pyrrolidine monoadduct.
Doping with various impurities is an effective approach to improve the photoelectrochemical properties of TiO2. Here, we explore the effect of oxygen vacancy on geometric and elec- tronic properties of compensated （i.e. V-N and Cr-C） and non-compensated （i.e. V-C and Cr-N） codoped anatase TiO2 by performing extensive density functional theory calculations. Theoretical results show that oxygen vacancy prefers to the neighboring site of metal dopant （i.e. V or Cr atom）. After introduction of oxygen vacancy, the unoccupied impurity bands located within band gap of these codoped TiO2 will be filled with electrons, and the posi- tion of conduction band offset does not change obviously, which result in the reduction of photoinduced carrier recombination and the good performance for hydrogen production via water splitting. Moreover, we find that oxygen vacancy is easily introduced in V-N codoped TiO2 under O-poor condition. These theoretical insights are helpful for designing codoped TiO2 with high photoelectrochemical performance.
