Hiroki Funashima

Electronic Structure of Hole-Doped Transition Metal Cyanides

Electronic structures of hole-doped transition metal cyanides, Na0:84� xCo[Fe(CN)6]0:71 .3.8H2O (NCF71), Na0:72� xNi[Fe(CN)6]0:68 .5.1H2O (NNF68) and Na1:60� xCo[Fe(CN)6]0:90 .2.9H2O (NCF90), were investigated by means of the x-ray absorption spectroscopy and the valence differential spectroscopy. The x-ray absorption spectroscopy revealed that the holes are introduced on the Fe, Fe, and Co sites for the NCF71, NNF68 and NCF90 films, respectively. Owning to the valence differential spectroscopy, we unambiguously assigned the spectral components to the respective optical transitions. We further found that an ab initio band calculation based on the local density approximation with the onsite Columbic repulsion (LDA+U) semi-quantitatively explains the optical transitions.

First-principles investigations of defect and phase stabilities in thermoelectric (GeTe)x(AgSbTe2)1−x

We focus on the defect and phase stabilities in the pseudo binary alloy (GeTe)x(AgSbTe2)1−x (TAGS; tellurium antimony germanium silver). TAGS is expected to be a high effective thermoelectric material because its thermal conductivity shows anomalous behavior around the concentration of x = 0.8. The origin of the anomalous thermal conductivity and the stable structure in TAGS have not been well understood. To clarify the stable structure, we calculate the formation energies of the point and complex defects. It is found that the chain structure of Ag–Te–Sb has a lower formation energy in GeTe, and the system becomes more stable by assembling the Ag–Te–Sb chain structures. Moreover, the calculated mixing energy also shows that the TAGS system tends to undergo phase separation. In such structures, the grain boundary plays an important role in inducing large phonon scattering, leading to the thermal conductivity reduction.

First-Principles Study on Structural and Thermoelectric Properties of Al- and Sb-Doped Mg2Si

We theoretically investigate the structural and thermoelectric properties of magnesium silicide (Mg2Si) incorporating Al or Sb atoms as impurities using first-principles calculations. We optimized the structural properties through variable-cell relaxation using a pseudopotential method based on density functional theory. The result indicates that the lattice constant can be affected by the insertion of impurity atoms into the system, mainly because the ionic radii of these impurities differ from those of the matrix constituents Mg and Si. We then estimate, on the basis of the optimized structures, the site preferences of the impurity atoms using a formation energy calculation. The result shows a nontrivial concentration-dependence of the site occupation, such that Al tends to go into the Si, Mg, and interstitial sites with comparable formation energies at low doping levels (<2 at.%); it can start to substitute for the Mg sites preferentially at higher doping levels (<4 at.%). Sb, on the other hand, shows a strong preference for the Si sites at all impurity concentrations. Furthermore, we obtain the temperature-dependence of the thermoelectromotive force (Seebeck coefficient) of the Al- and Sb-doped Mg2Si using the full-potential linearized augmented-plane-wave method and the Boltzmann transport equation.

Theoretical analysis of structure and formation energy of impurity-doped Mg2Si: Comparison of first-principles codes for material properties

We theoretically investigate the impurity doping effects on the structural parameters such as lattice constant, atomic positions, and site preferences of impurity dopants for Al-doped magnesium silicide (Mg2Si) crystal using the first-principles calculation methods. We present comparison between several codes: ABCAP, Quantum Espresso, and Machikaneyama2002 (Akai KKR), which are based on the full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave method, the pseudopotential method, and KKR/GGA Greens function method, respectively. As a result, any codes used in the present study exhibit qualitative consistency both in the dependence of the lattice constants on the doping concentration and the energetic preference of the Al atom for the following sites; substitutional Si and Mg sites, and interstitial 4b site; in particular, ABCAP, which is based on the all-electron full-potential method, and Quantum Espresso, which is a code of the pseudopotential method, produce closely-resemble calculation results. We also discuss the effects of local atomic displacement owing to the presence of impurities to the structural parameters of a bulk. Using the analytical method considering the local atomic displacement, moreover, we evaluate the formation energy of Na- and B-doped systems as examples of p-type doping in order to examine the possilbility of realizing p-type Mg2Si.