Diego Carrascal

Impact of edge shape on the functionalities of graphene-based single-molecule electronics devices

We present an ab initio analysis of the impact of edge shape and graphene-molecule anchor coupling on the electronic and transport functionalities of graphene-based molecular electronics devices. We analyze how Fano-like resonances, spin filtering, and negative differential resistance effects may or may not arise by modifying suitably the edge shapes and the terminating groups of simple organic molecules. We show that the spin filtering effect is a consequence of the magnetic behavior of zigzag-terminated edges, which is enhanced by furnishing these with a wedge shape. The negative differential resistance effect is originated by the presence of two degenerate electronic states localized at each of the atoms coupling the molecule to graphene which are strongly affected by a bias voltage. The effect could thus be tailored by a suitable choice of the molecule and contact atoms if edge shape could be controlled with atomic precision.

Universality in the low-voltage transport response of molecular wires physisorbed onto graphene electrodes

We analyze the low-voltage transport response of large molecular wires bridging graphene electrodes, where the molecules are physisorbed onto the graphene sheets by planar anchor groups. In our study, the sheets are pulled away to vary the gap length and the relative atomic positions. The molecular wires are also translated in directions parallel and perpendicular to the sheets. We show that the energy position of the Breit-Wigner molecular resonances is universal for a given molecule, in the sense that it is independent of the details of the graphene edges, gaps lengths, or of the molecule positions. We discuss the need to converge carefully the k sampling to provide reasonable values of the conductance.

Exact Kohn-Sham eigenstates versus quasiparticles in simple models of strongly correlated electrons

We present analytic expressions for the exact density functional and Kohn-Sham Hamiltonian of simple tight-binding models of correlated electrons. These are the single- and double-site versions of the Anderson, Hubbard, and spinless fermion models. The exact exchange and correlation potentials keep the full nonlocal dependence on electron occupations. The analytic expressions allow us to compare the Kohn-Sham eigenstates of exact density functional theory with the many-body quasiparticle states of these correlated-electron systems. The exact Kohn-Sham spectrum describes correctly many of the nontrivial features of the many-body quasiparticle spectrum such as, for example, the precursors of the Kondo peak. However, we find that some pieces of the quasiparticle spectrum are missing because the many-body phase space for electron and hole excitations is richer.

Universality in the transport response of molecular wires physisorbed onto graphene electrodes

We analyze the low-voltage transport response of large molecular wires bridging graphene electrodes, where the molecules are physisorbed onto the graphene sheets by planar anchor groups. In our study, the sheets are pulled away to vary the gap length and the relative atomic positions. The molecular wires are also translated in directions parallel and perpendicular to the sheets. We show that the energy position of the Breit-Wigner molecular resonances is universal for a given molecule, in the sense that it is independent of the details of the graphene edges, gaps lengths, or of the molecule positions. We discuss the need to converge carefully the k sampling to provide reasonable values of the conductance.

Linear response time-dependent density functional theory of the Hubbard dimer

Abstract The asymmetric Hubbard dimer is used to study the density-dependence of the exact frequency-dependent kernel of linear-response time-dependent density functional theory. The exact form of the kernel is given, and the limitations of the adiabatic approximation utilizing the exact ground-state functional are shown. The oscillator strength sum rule is proven for lattice Hamiltonians, and relative oscillator strengths are defined appropriately. The method of Casida for extracting oscillator strengths from a frequency-dependent kernel is demonstrated to yield the exact result with this kernel. An unambiguous way of labelling the nature of excitations is given. The fluctuation-dissipation theorem is proven for the ground-state exchange-correlation energy. The distinction between weak and strong correlation is shown to depend on the ratio of interaction to asymmetry. A simple interpolation between carefully defined weak-correlation and strong-correlation regimes yields a density-functional approximation for the kernel that gives accurate transition frequencies for both the single and double excitations, including charge-transfer excitations. Many exact results, limits, and expansions about those limits are given in the Appendices.

Oscillating spin-density pattern in gold metallocene and phthalocyanine molecules

We present a theoretical study of the magnetic properties of dicyclopentadienyl metallocene and phthalocyanine molecules, that contain the transition metal atoms M = Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ir, Pt and Au. Our most important prediction is that gold and copper molecules are m agnetic. We find that the magnetism of these molecules is fairly unconventional: the gold atom itself is weakly magnetic or even non-magnetic. Its role is rather to induce magnetism in the surrounding carbon and nit rogen atoms, producing a sort of spin density wave.