Ben-Xia Zheng

Insights into the structural, electronic and magnetic properties of V-doped copper clusters: comparison with pure copper clusters.

The structural, electronic and magnetic properties of Cun+1 and CunV (n = 1–12) clusters have been investigated by using density functional theory. The growth behaviors reveal that V atom in low-energy CunV isomer favors the most highly coordinated position and changes the geometry of the three-dimensional host clusters. The vibrational spectra are predicted and can be used to identify the ground state. The relative stability and chemical activity of the ground states are analyzed through the binding energy per atom, energy second-order difference and energy gap. It is found that that the stability of CunV (n ≥ 8) is higher than that of Cun+1. The substitution of a V atom for a Cu atom in copper clusters alters the odd-even oscillations of stability and activity of the host clusters. The vertical ionization potential, electron affinity and photoelectron spectrum are calculated and simulated for all of the most stable clusters. Compare with the experimental data, we determine the ground states of pure copper clusters. The magnetism analyses show that the magnetic moments of CunV clusters are mainly localized on the V atom and decease with the increase of cluster size. The magnetic change is closely related to the charge transfer between V and Cu atoms.

Exploration of the Structural, Electronic and Tunable Magnetic Properties of Cu4M (M = Sc-Ni) Clusters

The structural, electronic and magnetic properties of Cu4M (M = Sc-Ni) clusters have been studied by using density functional theory, together with an unbiased CALYPSO structure searching method. Geometry optimizations indicate that M atoms in the ground state Cu4M clusters favor the most highly coordinated position. The geometry of Cu4M clusters is similar to that of the Cu5 cluster. The infrared spectra, Raman spectra and photoelectron spectra are predicted and can be used to identify the ground state in the future. The relative stability and chemical activity are investigated by means of the averaged binding energy, dissociation energy and energy level gap. It is found that the dopant atoms except for Cr and Mn can enhance the stability of the host cluster. The chemical activity of all Cu4M clusters is lower than that of Cu5 cluster whose energy level gap is in agreement with available experimental finding. The magnetism calculations show that the total magnetic moment of Cu4M cluster mainly come from M atom and vary from 1 to 5 μB by substituting a Cu atom in Cu5 cluster with different transition-metal atoms.

Comment on “the ground-state structures of Au10−, Au8Ni and Au9Ni clusters”

The lowest energy structures of Aun+1− and AunNi (n = 2–9) clusters have been researched using the CALYPSO structure searching method in conjunction with the density functional theory. It is found that the most stable structures of Au10−, Au8Ni and Au9Ni clusters reported by Tang et al. [C. M. Tang, X. X. Chen and X. D. Yang, Int. J. Mod. Phys. B 28, 1450138 (2014)] are low-lying isomers. The correct ground states and vibrational spectra are given in this paper.