Quantum-mechanical Hartree-Fock self-consistent-field study of the elastic constants and chemical bonding of MgF2 (sellaite)

Atomistic modeling of the low-temperature atom-beam deposition of magnesium fluoride

We model the deposition and growth of MgF(2) on a sapphire substrate as it occurs in a low-temperature atom-beam-deposition experiment. In the experiment, an (X-ray) amorphous film of MgF(2) is obtained at low temperatures of 170-180 K, and upon heating, this transforms to the expected rutile phase via the CaCl(2)-type structure. We confirm this from our simulations and propose a mechanism for this transformation. The growth process is analyzed as a function of the synthesis parameters, which include the substrate temperature, deposition rate of clusters, and types of clusters deposited. Upon annealing an initially amorphous deposit, we observe the formation of two competing nanocrystalline modifications during this process, which exhibit the CaCl(2) and CdI(2) structure types, respectively. We argue that this joint growth of the two nanocrystalline polymorphs stabilizes the kinetically unstable CaCl(2)-type structure on the macroscopic level long enough to be observed in the experiment.

The effect of electron correlation on the adsorption of hydrogen fluoride and water on magnesium fluoride surfaces

Periodic DFT and local MP2 calculations elucidate the role of electron correlation in the adsorption of H₂O and HF on MgF₂ surfaces.

Investigation of thorium salts as candidate materials for direct observation of the (229m)Th nuclear transition

Recent efforts to measure the (229m)Th → (229g)Th nuclear transition sparked interest in understanding the electronic structure of wide-gap thorium salts. Such materials could be used to measure this nuclear transition using optical spectroscopy in solid-state devices. Here, we present screened hybrid density functional theory and many-body G0W0 calculations of two candidate materials, namely, Na2ThF6 and ThF4, for such a measurement. Our results show an electronic gap larger than 10 eV for both materials, suggesting that the internal conversion nuclear de-excitation channel would be suppressed in these materials. We also present results for ThX4 (X = Cl, Br, I), materials with smaller gaps significantly easier to access experimentally.

Evolution of order in amorphous-to-crystalline phase transformation of MgF2

Structural disorder and distortion play a significant role in phase transformations. Experimentally, electron diffraction in the transmission electron microscope offers the ability to characterize disorderviathe pair distribution function (PDF) at high spatial resolution. In this work, energy-filteredin situelectron diffraction is applied to measure PDFs of different phases of MgF2from the amorphous deposit through metastable modifications to the thermodynamically stable phase. Despite the restriction of thick specimens resulting in multiple electron scattering, elaborate data analysis enabled experimental and molecular dynamics simulation data to be matched, thus allowing analysis of the evolution of short-range ordering. In particular, it is possible to explain the theoretically not predicted existence of a metastable phase by the presence of atomic disorder and distortion. The short-range ordering in the amorphous and crystalline phases is elucidated as three steps: (i) an initial amorphous phase exhibiting CaCl2-type short-range order which acts as a crystallization nucleus to guide the phase transformation to the metastable CaCl2-type phase and thus suppresses the direct appearance of the rutile-type phase; (ii) a metastable CaCl2-type phase containing short-range structural features of the stable rutile type; and (iii) the formation of a large volume fraction of disordered intergranular regions which stabilize the CaCl2-type phase. The structure evolution is described within the energy landscape concept.

Quasiparticle band structures and optical properties of magnesium fluoride

The quasiparticle and optical properties of magnesium fluoride (MgF(2)) are computed within the GW approximation based on many-body perturbation theory (MBPT). The many-body effects appearing in self-energy and electron-hole interactions have an important influence on the electronic and optical properties. The DFT-LDA calculation shows a 6.78 eV band gap. Two methods are employed to evaluate the self-energy within the GW approximation in the present work. The generalized plasmon pole model (GPP) provides a band gap of 12.17 eV, which agrees well with the experimental value of 12.4 eV (Thomas et al 1973 Phys. Status Solidi b 56 163). Another band gap value of 11.30 eV is obtained by using a full frequency-dependent self-energy, which is also not far from the experimental value and is much better than the result from the LDA calculation. The calculated optical spectrum within DFT is significantly different from the experiment. Although the calculated optical absorption threshold within the GW method is close to the experiment, the overall shape of the spectrum is still similar to the case of DFT. However, the overall shape of the spectrum via the Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE) method agrees well with the experiment.