Trigonal tellurium (Te) is a chiral semiconductor that lacks both mirror and inversion symmetries, resulting in complex band structures with Weyl crossings and unique spin textures. Detailed time-resolved polarized reflectance spectroscopy is used to investigate its band structure and carrier dynamics. The polarized transient spectra reveal optical transitions between the uppermost spin-split
A unified picture of the electronic relaxation dynamics of ionized liquid water has remained elusive despite decades of study. Here, we employ sub-two-cycle visible to short-wave infrared pump-probe spectroscopy and ab initio nonadiabatic molecular dynamics simulations to reveal that the excess electron injected into the conduction band (CB) of ionized liquid water undergoes sequential relaxation to the hydrated electron
- Award ID(s):
- 2154367
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10382033
- Publisher / Repository:
- Nature Publishing Group
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Nature Communications
- Volume:
- 13
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 2041-1723
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
more » « less
Abstract H 4andH 5and the degenerateH 6valence bands (VB) and the lowest degenerateH 6conduction band (CB) as well as a higher energy transition at the L-point. Surprisingly, the degeneracy of theH 6CB (a proposed Weyl node) is lifted and the spin-split VB gap is reduced upon photoexcitation before relaxing to equilibrium as the carriers decay. Using ab initio density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we conclude that the dynamic band structure is caused by a photoinduced shear strain in the Te film that breaks the screw symmetry of the crystal. The band-edge anisotropy is also reflected in the hot carrier decay rate, which is a factor of two slower along thec -axis than perpendicular to it. The majority of photoexcited carriers near the band-edge are seen to recombine within 30 ps while higher lying transitions observed near 1.2 eV appear to have substantially longer lifetimes, potentially due to contributions of intervalley processes in the recombination rate. These new findings shed light on the strong correlation between photoinduced carriers and electronic structure in anisotropic crystals, which opens a potential pathway for designing novel Te-based devices that take advantage of the topological structures as well as strong spin-related properties. -
more » « less
Hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites (HOIPs) have become an important class of semiconductors for solar cells and other optoelectronic applications. Electron–phonon coupling plays a critical role in all optoelectronic devices, and although the lattice dynamics and phonon frequencies of HOIPs have been well studied, little attention has been given to phonon lifetimes. We report high-precision momentum-resolved measurements of acoustic phonon lifetimes in the hybrid perovskite methylammonium lead iodide (MAPI), using inelastic neutron spectroscopy to provide high-energy resolution and fully deuterated single crystals to reduce incoherent scattering from hydrogen. Our measurements reveal extremely short lifetimes on the order of picoseconds, corresponding to nanometer mean free paths and demonstrating that acoustic phonons are unable to dissipate heat efficiently. Lattice-dynamics calculations using ab initio third-order perturbation theory indicate that the short lifetimes stem from strong three-phonon interactions and a high density of low-energy optical phonon modes related to the degrees of freedom of the organic cation. Such short lifetimes have significant implications for electron–phonon coupling in MAPI and other HOIPs, with direct impacts on optoelectronic devices both in the cooling of hot carriers and in the transport and recombination of band edge carriers. These findings illustrate a fundamental difference between HOIPs and conventional photovoltaic semiconductors and demonstrate the importance of understanding lattice dynamics in the effort to develop metal halide perovskite optoelectronic devices.
-
In hybrid materials, a high-symmetry lattice is decorated by low-symmetry building blocks. The result is an aperiodic solid that hosts many nearly-degenerate disordered configurations. Using the perovskite methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI 3 ) as a prototype hybrid material, we show that the inherent disorder renders the conventional phonon picture of transport insufficient. Ab initio molecular dynamics and analysis of the spectral energy density reveal that vibrational carriers simultaneously exhibit features of both classical phonons and of carriers typically found in glasses. The low frequency modes retain elements of acoustic waves but exhibit extremely short lifetimes of only a few tens of picoseconds. For higher frequency modes, strong scattering due to rapid motion and reconfiguration of the organic cation molecules induces a loss of definition of the wave vector. Lattice dynamics shows that these carriers are more akin to diffusons – the nonwave carriers in vitreous materials – and are the dominant contributors to thermal conduction near room temperature. To unify the framework of glassy diffusons with that of phonons scattered at the ultimate limit, three-phonon interactions resolved from first-principles expose anharmonic effects two orders of magnitude higher than in silicon. The dominant anharmonic interactions occur within modes of the PbI 6 octahedral framework itself, as well as between modes of the octahedral framework and modes localized to the MA molecules. The former arises from long-range interactions due to resonant bonding, and the latter from polar rotor scattering of the MA molecules. This establishes a clear microscopic connection between symmetry-breaking, dynamical disorder, anharmonicity, and the loss of wave nature in MAPbI 3 .more » « less
-
Photoluminescence (PL) is one of the key experimental characterizations of optoelectronic materials, including conjugated polymers (CPs). In this study, a simplified model of an undoped cis-polyacetylene (cis-PA) oligomer was selected and used to explain the mechanism of photoluminescence (PL) of the CPs. Using a combination of the ab initio electronic structure and a time-dependent density matrix methodology, the photo-induced time-dependent excited state dynamics were computed. We explored the phonon-induced relaxation of the photoexcited state for a single oligomer of cis-PA. Here, the dissipative Redfield equation of the motion was used to compute the dissipative excited state dynamics of electronic degrees of freedom. This equation used the nonadiabatic couplings as parameters. The computed excited state dynamics showed that the relaxation rate of the electron is faster than the relaxation rate of the hole. The dissipative excited-state dynamics were combined with radiative recombination channels to predict the PL spectrum. The simulated results showed that the absorption and emission spectra both have a similar transition. The main result is that the computed PL spectrum demonstrates two mechanisms of light emission originating from (i) the inter-band transitions, corresponding to the same range of transition energies as the absorption spectrum and (ii) intra-band transitions not available in the absorption spectra. However, the dissipative Redfield equation of the motion was used to compute the electronic degrees of freedom of the nonadiabatic couplings, which helped to process the time propagation of the excited dynamic state. This excited dynamic state shows that the relaxation rate of the electron is faster than the relaxation rate of the hole, which can be used for improving organic semiconductor materials for photovoltaic and LED applications.more » « less
-
more » « less
Abstract Recent work that establishes a picture of the driving forces that govern material transformations and degradation in electrochemical environments to enable the ab initio design of electrochemical materials is highlighted. Select prototype systems are used to describe how the interplay between
materials properties such as crystal field splitting, band edge energies, surface termination, material length scale, dielectric constant, and isoelectric point, andelectrolyte properties such as pH and ion type, impacts electrochemical behavior—i.e., redox potentials, reaction enthalpies, reactivity, and decoupled ionic/electronic processes. Ab initio modeling of charged defects and intercalants within the grand canonical unified electrochemical band‐diagram (UEB) framework is shown to enable the quantitative prediction of electrochemical materials behavior. UEB combines electrochemical theory, charged defect theory, and band diagram descriptions and can be used both for materials discovery and development. First, a pedagogical description of the UEB framework is presented, and then the application of this framework to reveal mechanisms for high rate electronic charge storage in cation incorporated α‐MnO2and λ‐MnO2, high desalination efficiency of thin‐film NaMn4O8, and the flat charge/discharge profile of FePO4is reviewed. Finally, new prospects for the application of the UEB framework to electrolyte design, interfacial engineering, and catalysis are suggested.
