arXiv subjects

Naseem Ud Din

Publications and source records attributed to Naseem Ud Din.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Multiferroic Dark Excitonic Mott Insulator in the Breathing-Kagome Lattice Material Nb$_3$Cl$_8$

Flat electronic bands strongly enhance Coulomb interactions and can stabilize unconventional insulating states. Motivated by the recent discovery of flat bands in breathing Kagome lattices, we use first-principles GW--Bethe--Salpeter theory to investigate the excitonic spectrum of single-layer Nb$_3$Cl$_8$. We find a dark spin-triplet Frenkel exciton whose spectral peak lies at negative energy ($-0.14$~eV) relative to the quasiparticle gap, directly signaling a preformed bound state and an excitonic Mott insulating phase potentially stable at room temperature. Bright excitons appear at $0.94$~eV and $1.21$~eV, with ultra-large binding energies of $2.05$~eV and $1.77$~eV. By mapping the low-energy dynamics onto a spin-1 Hubbard model on a triangular lattice, we show that frustrated antiferromagnetic and ferroelectric tendencies naturally emerge. These results identify Nb$_3$Cl$_8$ as a candidate multiferroic dark excitonic insulator, opening a pathway to correlated quantum phases in two dimensions.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2023

Defects and Oxygen Impurities in Ferroelectric Wurtzite Al$_{1-x}$Sc$_x$N Alloys

III-nitrides and related alloys are widely used for optoelectronics and as acoustic resonators. Ferroelectric wurtzite nitrides are of particular interest because of their potential for direct integration with Si and wide bandgap semiconductors, and unique polarization switching characteristics; such interest has taken off since the first report of ferroelectric Al$_{1-x}$Sc$_x$N alloys. However, the coercive fields needed to switch polarization are on the order of MV/cm, which is 1-2 orders of magnitude larger than oxide perovskite ferroelectrics. Atomic-scale point defects are known to impact the dielectric properties, including breakdown fields and leakage currents, as well as ferroelectric switching. However, very little is known about the native defects and impurities in Al$_{1-x}$Sc$_x$N, and their effect on the dielectric properties. In this study, we use first-principles calculations to determine the formation energetics of native defects and unintentional oxygen incorporation in Al$_{1-x}$Sc$_x$N. We find that nitrogen vacancies are the dominant native defects, and that they introduce multiple mid-gap states that can lead to premature dielectric breakdown in ferroelectrics and carrier recombination in optoelectronics. Growth under N-rich conditions will reduce the concentration of these deep defects. We also investigate unintentional oxygen incorporation on the nitrogen site and find that the substitutional defect is present in high concentrations, which can contribute to increased temperature-activated leakage currents. Our findings provide fundamental understanding of the defect physics in Al$_{1-x}$Sc$_x$N alloys, which is critical for future deployment of ferroelectric devices.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2023

Thickness dependence of superconductivity in FeSe films

The films of FeSe on substrates have attracted attention because of their unusually high-temperature (Tc) superconducting properties whose origins continue to be debated. To disentangle the competing effects of the substrate and interlayer and intralayer processes, we present here results of density functional theory (DFT)-based analysis of the electronic structure of unsupported FeSe films consisting of 1 to 5 layers (1L-5L). Furthermore, by solving the Bardeen-Schrieffer-Cooper (BCS) equation with spin-wave exchange attraction derived from the Hubbard model, we find the superconducting critical temperature Tc for 1L-5L and bulk FeSe systems in reasonable agreement with experimental data. Our results point to the importance of correlation effects in superconducting properties of single- and multi-layer FeSe films, independently of the role of substrate.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2022

Anisotropy of the Optical Properties of Pentacene:Black Phosphorus Interfaces

Black phosphorus (BP) is a layered material with anisotropic properties. We study interfaces formed by a pentacene monolayer adsorbed on monolayer BP, a prototypical system for BP surface passivation. We place the pentacene monolayer along the zigzag and armchair directions of the BP substrate, respectively, to examine the anisotropy of the heterogeneous interfaces. We perform first-principles $GW$ plus Bethe-Salpeter equation ($GW$-BSE) calculations to determine the quasiparticle and optical properties. To quantitatively analyze the anisotropy of the optical properties, we develop a general computational scheme to decompose the interface excitons into different contributions. We find a distinct charge-transfer exciton formed when the monolayer pentacene is placed along the armchair direction, and discuss how the anisotropy of each component is modulated by the interface. Our results shine a light on the understanding of the BP surface passivation via molecular adsorption and provide a benchmark for future experimental and computational studies.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2021

Electron Thermalization and Relaxation in Laser-Heated Nickel by Few-Femtosecond Core-Level Transient Absorption Spectroscopy

Direct measurements of photoexcited carrier dynamics in nickel are made using few-femtosecond extreme ultraviolet (XUV) transient absorption spectroscopy at the nickel M$_{2,3}$ edge. It is observed that the core-level absorption lineshape of photoexcited nickel can be described by a Gaussian broadening ($σ$) and a red shift ($ω_{s}$) of the ground state absorption spectrum. Theory predicts, and the experimental results verify that after initial rapid carrier thermalization, the electron temperature increase ($ΔT$) is linearly proportional to the Gaussian broadening factor $σ$, providing quantitative real-time tracking of the relaxation of the electron temperature. Measurements reveal an electron cooling time for 50 nm thick polycrystalline nickel films of 640$\pm$80 fs. With hot thermalized carriers, the spectral red shift exhibits a power-law relationship with the change in electron temperature of $ω_{s}\proptoΔT^{1.5}$. Rapid electron thermalization via carrier-carrier scattering accompanies and follows the nominal 4 fs photoexcitation pulse until the carriers reach a quasi-thermal equilibrium. Entwined with a <6 fs instrument response function, carrier thermalization times ranging from 34 fs to 13 fs are estimated from experimental data acquired at different pump fluences and it is observed that the electron thermalization time decreases with increasing pump fluence. The study provides an initial example of measuring electron temperature and thermalization in metals in real time with XUV light, and it lays a foundation for further investigation of photoinduced phase transitions and carrier transport in metals with core-level absorption spectroscopy.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2020

Ultrafast charge dynamics and photoluminescence in bilayer MoS2

Our examination of the interplay of ultrafast charge dynamics and electron-phonon interaction in bilayer MoS2 provides a microscopic basis for understanding the features (two peaks) in the emission spectrum. We demonstrate that while the initial accumulation of excited charge occurs at and near the Q point of the two-dimensional Brillioun zone, emission takes place predominantly through two pathways: direct charge recombination at the K point and indirect phonon-assisted recombination of electrons at the K valley and holes at Γ hill of the Brillouin zone. Analysis of the wave vector dependencies of the electron-phonon interaction traces the higher energy peak to phonon-assisted relaxation of the excited electrons from the Q to the K valley in the conduction band. Our results thus reveal the importance of ultrafast charge dynamics in understanding photoemissive properties of a few-layer transition-metal dichalcogenide. These calculations are based on time dependent density functional theory in the density matrix formulation.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2020

Excited states in hydrogenated single-layer MoS$_2$

We calculate the excitation spectrum of single-layer MoS$_2$ at several hydrogen coverages by using a method based on first-principles Density-Matrix Time-Dependent Density-Functional Theory (TDDFT). Our results show that the fully hydrogenated system is metallic, while in the low-coverage limit the spectrum of single-layer MoS$_2$ includes spin-polarized partially filled localized mid-gap states. These states arise from s-orbitals of H atoms which make a tilted bond with the surface S atoms. The calculated absorption spectrum of the system reveals standard excitonic peaks, which correspond to the bound valence-band hole and conduction-band electron, as well as excitonic peaks that involve the mid-gap charges. As in the case of pristine single-layer MoS$_2$, binding energies of the excitons of the hydrogenated system are found to be relatively large (few tens of meV), making their experimental detection facile and suggesting hydrogenation as a knob for tuning the optical properties of single-layer MoS$_2$. Importantly, we find hydrogenation to suppress visible light photoluminescence, in agreement with experimental observations. As an aside, we contrast the effects of hydrogen coverage to that of the next two elements in the same column of the periodic table (the lightest metals), Li and Na, on the spectral properties of single-layer MoS$_2$ which lead instead to the formation of n-doped non-magnetic semiconductors that do not allow excitonic states.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2014

Spin-polarized surface state in Li-doped SnO$_{2}$(001)

Using LDA+$U$, we investigate Li-doped rutile SnO$_2$(001) surface. The surface defect formation energy shows that it is easier for Li to be doped at surface Sn site than bulk Sn site in SnO$_2$. Li at surface and sub-surface Sn sites has a magnetic ground state, and the induced magnetic moments are not localized at Li site, but spread over Sn and O sites. The surface electronic structures show that Li at surface Sn site shows $100%$ spin-polarization (half metallic), whereas Li at sub-surface Sn site does not have half metallic state due to Li-Sn hybridized orbitals. The spin-polarized surface has a ferromagnetic ground state, therefore, ferromagnetism is expected in Li-doped SnO$_2$(001) surface.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2013

Stabilizing intrinsic defects in SnO$_{2}$

TThe magnetism and electronic structure of Li-doped SnO$_{2}$ are investigated using first-principles LDA/LDA$+U$ calculations. We find that Li induces magnetism in SnO$_{2}$ when doped at the Sn site but becomes non-magnetic when doped at the O and interstitial sites. The calculated formation energies show that Li prefers the Sn site as compared with the O site, in agreement with previous experimental works. The interaction of Li with native defects (Sn V$_\mathrm{Sn}$ and O V$_\mathrm{O}$ vacancies) is also studied, and we find that Li not only behaves as a spin polarizer, but also a vacancy stabilizer, i.e. Li significantly reduces the defect formation energies of the native defects and helps the stabilization of magnetic oxygen vacancies. The electronic densities of states reveals that these systems, where the Fermi level touches the conduction (valence) band, are non-magnetic (magnetic).cancies. The electronic densities of states reveal that those systems, where the Fermi levels touch the conduction (valence) band, are non-magnetic (magnetic).

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗