Daniel Åberg

Strong UV absorption and visible luminescence in ytterbium-doped aluminosilicate glass under UV excitation

A broad visible luminescence band and characteristic IR luminescence of Yb(3+) ions are observed under UV excitation in ytterbium-doped aluminosilicate glass. Samples made under both oxidizing and reducing conditions are analyzed. A strong charge-transfer absorption band in the UV range is observed for glass samples containing ytterbium. Additional absorption bands are observed for the sample made under reducing conditions, which are associated with f-d transitions of divalent ytterbium. The visible luminescence band is attributed to 5d-4f emission from Yb(2+) ions, and the IR luminescence is concluded to originate from a relaxed charge-transfer transition. The findings are important to explain induced optical losses (photodarkening) in high-power fiber lasers.

Synthesis and characterization of nitrides of iridium and palladium

We describe the synthesis of nitrides of iridium and palladium using the laser-heated diamond anvil cell. We have used the in situ techniques of x-ray powder diffraction and Raman scattering to characterize these compounds and have compared our experimental findings where possible to the results of first-principles theoretical calculations. We suggest that palladium nitride is isostructural with pyrite, while iridium nitride has a monoclinic symmetry and is isostructural with baddeleyite.

First-Principles Calculations of the Urbach Tail in the Optical Absorption Spectra of Silica Glass

We present density-functional theory calculations of the o ptical absorption spectra of silica glass for temperatures up to 2400 K. The calculated spectra exhibit exponent ial tails near the fundamental absorption edge that follow the Urbach rule, in good agreement with experiments. We also discuss the accuracy of our results by comparing to hybrid exchange correlation functionals. By d eriving a simple relationship between the exponential tails of the absorption coefficient and the electronic d ensity-of-states, we establish a direct link between the photoemission and the absorption spectra near the absorpti on edge. This relationship is subsequently employed to determine the lower bound to the Urbach frequency regime. Most interestingly, in this frequency interval, the optical absorption is Poisson distributed with very large s tati tical fluctuations. Finally, We determine the upper bound to the Urbach frequency regime by identifying the freq uency at which transition to Poisson distribution takes place.

Extrinsic point defects in aluminum antimonide

We investigate thermodynamic and electronic properties of group IV (C, Si, Ge, Sn) and group VI (O, S, Se, Te) impurities as well as P and H in aluminum antimonide (AlSb) using first-principles calculations. To this end, we compute the formation energies of a broad range of possible defect configurations including defect complexes with the most important intrinsic defects. We also obtain relative carrier scattering strengths for these defects to determine their impact on charge carrier mobility. Furthermore, we employ a self-consistent charge equilibration scheme to determine the net charge carrier concentrations for different temperatures and impurity concentrations. Thereby, we are able to study the effect of impurities incorporated during growth and identify optimal processing conditions for achieving compensated material. The key findings are summarized as follows. Among the group IV elements, C, Si, and Ge substitute for Sb and act as shallow acceptors, while Sn can substitute for either Sb or Al and displays amphoteric character. Among the group VI elements, S, Se, and Te substitute for Sb and act as deep donors. In contrast, O is most likely to be incorporated as an interstitial and predominantly acts as an acceptor. As a group V element, P substitutes for Sb and is electrically inactive. C and O are the most detrimental impurities to carrier transport, while Sn, Se, and Te have a modest to low impact. Therefore, Te can be used to compensate C and O impurities, which are unintentionally incorporated during the growth process, with minimal effect on the carrier mobilities.

An atomic program for energy levels of equivalent electrons: lanthanides and actinides

A program written in C is presented to carry out brute force calculations in order to derive energy levels for an equivalent electronic configuration. Relativistic effects are partly neglected except for the spin-orbit interaction. Since the main relativistic effects are indirect, i.e. causing a contraction of the core which in turn causes the outer shells to expand, they are included to a high degree through the use of appropriate Slater integrals. The program is especially useful for primarily unfilled f-shells of the rare-earth or actinide ions. Modifications of the program to include spin−spin, spin−other orbit, Breit interaction etc. is straight forward. The program is also general in the sense that there is no need to find out or generate any Racah coefficients of fractional parentage. The complete energy matrix is diagonalized with all operators interacting simultaneously thus allowing mixing of all quantum numbers. This result in all energy eigenvalues and eigenvectors that in turn for example are partly responsible for the polarized dipole, quadrupole, … transitions within the unfilled shell. Free ion configuration interaction is accounted for through the use of standard CI operators. The Stark splitting can be studied via the standard crystal field Hamiltonian. Magnetic field influence on the energy levels may also be studied.

Origin of resolution enhancement by co-doping of scintillators: Insight from electronic structure calculations

It was recently shown that the energy resolution of Ce-doped LaBr3 scintillator radiation detectors can be crucially improved by co-doping with Sr, Ca, or Ba. Here, we outline a mechanism for this enhancement on the basis of electronic structure calculations. We show that (i) Br vacancies are the primary electron traps during the initial stage of thermalization of hot carriers, prior to hole capture by Ce dopants; (ii) isolated Br vacancies are associated with deep levels; (iii) Sr doping increases the Br vacancy concentration by several orders of magnitude; (iv) Sr-La binds to V-Br resulting in a stable neutral complex; and (v) association with Sr causes the deep vacancy level to move toward the conduction band edge. The latter is essential for reducing the effective carrier density available for Auger quenching during thermalization of hot carriers. Subsequent de-trapping of electrons from Sr-La-V-Br complexes can activate Ce dopants that have previously captured a hole leading to luminescence. This mechanism implies an overall reduction of Auger quenching of free carriers, which is expected to improve the linearity of the photon light yield with respect to the energy of incident electron or photon.

Batteryless chemical detection with semiconductor nanowires

Batteryless chemical or biological detection, i.e., sensing without the need for an external power source, is an attractive scheme that will have instant advantages over the existent sensing technology in which the gas, chemical, or biological detection is based on equilibrium thermodynamic quantities such as resistivity/conductance or capacitance that have to be monitored electrically or optically. [ 1–12 ] Semiconducting nanowireor nanotube-based sensors have been well-documented to exhibit an ultrasensitive detection limit because of their large surface-tovolume ratio. Despite their relatively small power consumption (as little as sub-microwatts power), [ 1 , 4 , 8 , 13 ] these sensing platforms (or any other existing solid-state bulk sensors) require an external power source (battery) to operate. This, to large extent, curbs the nanosensor sizes and their reachable locations, as the macroscopic dimensions of power sources often far exceed those of nanosensors. It has been proposed that the small power needed for such a nanosensor can be harvested from the surrounding environment. [ 14 ] For this purpose, however, specifi c types of environmental energy sources have to exist. In addition, the fabrication of such an energy nanogenerator is highly non-trivial, and in most cases, prohibitively expensive and bulky to be integrated into nanosensor systems. [ 15–17 ]

Efficacy of the DFT plus U formalism for modeling hole polarons in perovskite oxides

We investigate the formation of self-trapped holes (STH) in three prototypical perovskites (SrTiO3, BaTiO3, PbTiO3) using a combination of density functional theory (DFT) calculations with local potentials and hybrid functionals. First we construct a local correction potential for polaronic configurations in SrTiO3 that is applied via the DFT + U method and matches the forces from hybrid calculations. We then use the DFT + U potential to search the configuration space and locate the lowest energy STH configuration. It is demonstrated that both the DFT + U potential and the hybrid functional yield a piecewise linear dependence of the total energy on the occupation of the STH level, suggesting that self-interaction effects have been properly removed. The DFT + U model is found to be transferable to BaTiO3 and PbTiO3, and STH formation energies from DFT + U and hybrid calculations are in close agreement for all three materials. STH formation is found to be energetically favorable in SrTiO3 and BaTiO3 but not in PbTiO3, which can be rationalized by considering the alignment of the valence band edges on an absolute energy scale. In the case of PbTiO3 the strong coupling between Pb 6s and O 2p states lifts the valence band minimum (VBM) compared to SrTiO3 and BaTiO3. This reduces the separation between VBM and STH level and renders the STH configuration metastable with respect to delocalization (band hole state). We expect that the present approach can be adapted to study STH formation also in oxides with different crystal structures and chemical compositions.

Electronic structure of LaBr3 from quasiparticle self-consistent GW calculations

Rare-earth based scintillators in general and lanthanum bromide (LaBr_3) in particular represent a challenging class of materials due to pronounced spin-orbit coupling and subtle interactions between d and f states that cannot be reproduced by standard density functional theory (DFT). Here a detailed investigation of the electronic band structure of LaBr_3 using the quasi-particle self-consistent GW (QPscGW) method is presented. This parameter-free approach is shown to yield an excellent description of the electronic structure of LaBr_3. Specifically it is able to reproduce the band gap, the correct level ordering and spacing of the 4f and 5d states, as well as the spin-orbit splitting of La-derived states. The QPscGW results are subsequently used to benchmark several computationally less demanding techniques including DFT+U, hybrid exchange-correlation functionals, and the G_0W_0 method. Spin-orbit coupling is included self-consistently at each QPscGW iteration and maximally localized Wannier functions are used to interpolate quasi-particle energies. The QPscGW results provide an excellent starting point for investigating the electronic structure of excited states, charge self-trapping, and activator ions in LaBr_3 and related materials.

Quasiparticle spectra, absorption spectra, and excitonic properties of NaI and SrI2 from many-body perturbation theory

We investigate the basic quantum-mechanical processes behind the nonproportional response of scintillators to incident radiation responsible for reduced resolution. For this purpose, we conduct a comparative first-principles study of quasiparticle spectra on the basis of the G(0)W(0) approximation as well as absorption spectra and excitonic properties by solving the Bethe-Salpeter equation for two important systems, NaI and SrI2. The former is a standard scintillator material with well-documented nonproportionality, while the latter has recently been found to exhibit a very proportional response. We predict band gaps for NaI and SrI2 of 5.5 and 5.2 eV, respectively, in good agreement with experiment. Furthermore, we obtain binding energies for the ground state excitons of 216 meV for NaI and 195 +/- 25 meV for SrI2. We analyze the degree of exciton anisotropy and spatial extent by means of a coarse-grained electron-hole pair-correlation function. Thereby, it is shown that the excitons in NaI differ strongly from those in SrI2 in terms of structure and symmetry, even if their binding energies are similar. Furthermore, we show that quite unexpectedly the spatial extents of the highly-anisotropic low-energy excitons in SrI2 in fact exceed those in NaI by a factor of two to three in terms of the full width at half maxima of the electron-hole pair-correlation function.