Temperature effect on the structural stabilities and electronic properties of X22H28 (X=C, Si and Ge) nanocrystals: A first-principles study

Based on ab initio molecular dynamic simulations, we have theoretically investigated the structural stabilities and electronic properties of X22H28 (X=C, Si, and Ge) nanocrystals, as a function of temperature with consideration of vibrational entropy effects. To compare the relative stabilities of X...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Xiao-Lin Deng, Yu-Jun Zhao, Ya-Ting Wang, Ji-Hai Liao, Xiao-Bao Yang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: AIP Publishing LLC 2016-12-01
Series:AIP Advances
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4973332
Description
Summary:Based on ab initio molecular dynamic simulations, we have theoretically investigated the structural stabilities and electronic properties of X22H28 (X=C, Si, and Ge) nanocrystals, as a function of temperature with consideration of vibrational entropy effects. To compare the relative stabilities of X22H28 isomers, the vibration free energies are obtained according to the calculated phonon spectrum, where the typical modes are shown to be dominant to the structural stabilities. In addition, there is a significant gap reduction as the temperature increases from 0 K to 300 K, where the decrements are 0.2 /0.5 /0.6eV for C/Si/Ge nanocrystals, respectively. The dependence of energy gap on the variance of bond length is also analyzed according to the corresponding atomic attributions to the HOMO and LUMO levels.
ISSN:2158-3226