Tobias Neumann

Experimental and theoretical investigations of the electronic band structure of metal-organic frameworks of HKUST-1 type

The electronic properties of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are increasingly attracting the attention due to potential applications in sensor techniques and (micro-) electronic engineering, for instance, as low-k-dielectric in semiconductor technology. Here, the band gap and the band structure of MOFs of type HKUST-1 are studied in detail by means of spectroscopic ellipsometry applied to thin surface-mounted MOF films and by means of quantum chemical calculations. The analysis of the density of states, the band structure, and the excitation spectrum reveal the importance of the empty Cu-3d orbitals for the electronic properties of HKUST-1. This study shows that, in contrast to common belief, even in the case of this fairly “simple” MOF, the excitation spectra cannot be explained by a superposition of “intra-unit” excitations within the individual building blocks. Instead, “inter-unit” excitations also have to be considered.

Toward Fast and Accurate Evaluation of Charge On-Site Energies and Transfer Integrals in Supramolecular Architectures Using Linear Constrained Density Functional Theory (CDFT)-Based Methods

A fast and accurate scheme has been developed to evaluate two key molecular parameters (on-site energies and transfer integrals) that govern charge transport in organic supramolecular architecture devices. The scheme is based on a constrained density functional theory (CDFT) approach implemented in the linear-scaling BigDFT code that exploits a wavelet basis set. The method has been applied to model disordered structures generated by force-field simulations. The role of the environment on the transport parameters has been taken into account by building large clusters around the active molecules involved in the charge transfer.

Superexchange Charge Transport in Loaded Metal Organic Frameworks

In the past, nanoporous metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been mostly studied for their huge potential with regard to gas storage and separation. More recently, the discovery that the electrical conductivity of a widely studied, highly insulating MOF, HKUST-1, improves dramatically when loaded with guest molecules has triggered a huge interest in the charge carrier transport properties of MOFs. The observed high conductivity, however, is difficult to reconcile with conventional transport mechanisms: neither simple hopping nor band transport models are consistent with the available experimental data. Here, we combine theoretical results and new experimental data to demonstrate that the observed conductivity can be explained by an extended hopping transport model including virtual hops through localized MOF states or molecular superexchange. Predictions of this model agree well with precise conductivity measurements, where experimental artifacts and the influence of defects are largely avoided by using well-defined samples and the Hg-drop junction approach.

Ultrarobust Thin-Film Devices from Self-Assembled Metal-Terpyridine Oligomers

Ultrathin molecular layers of Fe(II) -terpyridine oligomers allow the fabrication of large-area crossbar junctions by conventional electrode vapor deposition. The junctions are electrically stable for over 2.5 years and operate over a wide range of temperatures (150-360 K) and voltages (±3 V) due to the high cohesive energy and packing density of the oligomer layer. Electrical measurements reveal ideal Richardson-Shottky emission in surprising agreement with electrochemical, optical, and photoemission data.

Multiparticle moves in acceptance rate optimized Monte Carlo

Molecular Dynamics (MD) and Monte Carlo (MC) based simulation methods are widely used to investigate molecular and nanoscale structures and processes. While the investigation of systems in MD simulations is limited by very small time steps, MC methods are often stifled by low acceptance rates for moves that significantly perturb the system. In many Metropolis MC methods with hard potentials, the acceptance rate drops exponentially with the number of uncorrelated, simultaneously proposed moves. In this work, we discuss a multiparticle Acceptance Rate Optimized Monte Carlo approach (AROMoCa) to construct collective moves with near unit acceptance probability, while preserving detailed balance even for large step sizes. After an illustration of the protocol, we demonstrate that AROMoCa significantly accelerates MC simulations in four model systems in comparison to standard MC methods. AROMoCa can be applied to all MC simulations where a gradient of the potential is available and can help to significantly speed up molecular simulations.

A self-consistent first-principle based approach to model carrier mobility in organic materials

Transport through thin organic amorphous films, utilized in OLEDs and OPVs, has been a challenge to model by using ab-initio methods. Charge carrier mobility depends strongly on the disorder strength and reorganization energy, both of which are significantly affected by the details in environment of each molecule. Here we present a multi-scale approach to describe carrier mobility in which the materials morphology is generated using DEPOSIT, a Monte Carlo based atomistic simulation approach, or, alternatively by molecular dynamics calculations performed with GROMACS. From this morphology we extract the material specific hopping rates, as well as the on-site energies using a fully self-consistent embedding approach to compute the electronic structure parameters, which are then used in an analytic expression for the carrier mobility. We apply this strategy to compute the carrier mobility for a set of widely studied molecules and obtain good agreement between experiment and theory varying over several orders of magnitude in the mobility without any freely adjustable parameters. The work focuses on the quantum mechanical step of the multi-scale workflow, explains the concept along with the recently published workflow optimization, which combines density functional with semi-empirical tight binding approaches. This is followed by discussion on the analytic formula and its agreement with established percolation fits as well as kinetic Monte Carlo numerical approaches. Finally, we skatch an unified multi-disciplinary approach that integrates materials science simulation and high performance computing, developed within EU project MMM@HPC.