arXiv subjects

Nenad Vukmirovic

Publications and source records attributed to Nenad Vukmirovic.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2021

Non-equilibrium thermodynamics of charge separation in organic solar cells

This work presents a novel theoretical description of the non-equilibrium thermodynamics of charge separation process in organic solar cells (OSCs). Using the theory of stochastic thermodynamics, we connect the phonon-assisted dynamics and recombination of electron-hole pairs within a photo-excited organic bilayer with the thermodynamic free energy. We analyze the impact of energetic disorder and delocalization on the free energy, average energy and entropy. For high energetic disorder, the site population is well described by equilibrium. We observe significant deviations from equilibrium for delocalized electron-hole pairs at small energetic disorder, representing efficient OSCs. Our results emphasize that both a large Gibbs entropy and large initial separation are required to achieve efficient charge separation. A decrease in free energy barrier with increased distances between charges does not necessarily correlate with the separation yield. Our presented framework can further shed light on the transient thermodynamic free energy, allowing previously inaccessible insight into the individual thermodynamic contributions from energy and entropy on sub-ns timescales. Transient simulations reveal large Gibbs entropy on ps-timescales for even highest disorder, which may explain the efficient separation of "hot" CT states.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Electron-phonon coupling in crystalline organic semiconductors: Microscopic evidence for nonpolaronic charge carriers

We consider electron(hole)-phonon coupling in crystalline organic semiconductors, using naphthalene for our case study. Employing a first-principles approach, we compute the changes in the self-consistent Kohn-Sham potential corresponding to different phonon modes and go on to obtain the carrier-phonon coupling matrix elements (vertex functions). We then evaluate perturbatively the quasiparticle spectral residues for electrons at the bottom of the lowest-unoccupied- (LUMO) and holes at the top of the highest-occupied (HOMO) band, respectively obtaining $Z_e\approx 0.74$ and $Z_h\approx 0.78$. Along with the widely accepted notion that the carrier-phonon coupling strengths in polyacenes decrease with increasing molecular size, our results provide a strong microscopic evidence for the previously conjectured nonpolaronic nature of band-like carriers in these systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2012

Non-adiabatic molecular dynamics simulation for carrier transport in a molecular monolayer

We present a new approach to carry out non-adiabatic molecular dynamics to study the carrier mobility in an organic monolayer. This approach allows the calculation of a 4802 atom system for 825 fs in about three hours using 51,744 computer cores while maintaining a plane wave pseudopotential density functional theory level accuracy for the Hamiltonian. Our simulation on a pentathiophene butyric acid monolayer reveals a previously unknown new mechanism for the carrier transport in such systems: the hole wave functions are localized by thermo fluctuation induced disorder, while its transport is via charge transfer during state energy crossing. The simulation also shows that the system is not in thermo dynamic equilibrium in terms of adiabatic state populations according to Boltzmann distribution. Our simulation is achieved by introducing a linear time dependence approximation of the Hamiltonian within a fs time interval, and by using the charge patching method to yield the Hamiltonian, and overlapping fragment method to diagonalize the Hamiltonian matrix.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2010

Polaronic signatures and spectral properties of graphene antidot lattices

We explore the consequences of electron-phonon (e-ph) coupling in graphene antidot lattices (graphene nanomeshes), i.e., triangular superlattices of circular holes (antidots) in a graphene sheet. They display a direct band gap whose magnitude can be controlled via the antidot size and density. The relevant coupling mechanism in these semiconducting counterparts of graphene is the modulation of the nearest-neighbor electronic hopping integrals due to lattice distortions (Peierls-type e-ph coupling). We compute the full momentum dependence of the e-ph vertex functions for a number of representative antidot lattices. Based on the latter, we discuss the origins of the previously found large conduction-band quasiparticle spectral weight due to e-ph coupling. In addition, we study the nonzero-momentum quasiparticle properties with the aid of the self-consistent Born approximation, yielding results that can be compared with future angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements. Our principal finding is a significant e-ph mass enhancement, an indication of polaronic behavior. This can be ascribed to the peculiar momentum dependence of the e-ph interaction in these narrow-band systems, which favors small phonon momentum scattering. We also discuss implications of our study for recently fabricated large-period graphene antidot lattices.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Electron-phonon coupling in graphene antidot lattices: an indication of polaronic behavior

We study graphene antidot lattices -- superlattices of perforations (antidots) in a graphene sheet -- using a model that accounts for the phonon-modulation of the $π$-electron hopping integrals. We calculate the phonon spectra of selected antidot lattices using two different semi-empirical methods. Based on the adopted model, we quantify the nature of charge carriers in the system by computing the quasiparticle weight due to the electron-phonon interaction for an excess electron in the conduction band. We find a very strong phonon-induced renormalization, with the effective electron masses exhibiting nonmonotonic dependence on the superlattice period for a given antidot diameter. Our study provides an indication of polaronic behavior and points to the necessity of taking into account the inelastic degrees of freedom in future studies of transport in graphene antidot lattices.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2007

Density matrix theory of transport and gain in quantum cascade lasers in a magnetic field

A density matrix theory of electron transport and optical gain in quantum cascade lasers in an external magnetic field is formulated. Starting from the general quantum kinetic treatment, we describe the intra- and inter-period electron dynamics at the non-Markovian, Markovian and Boltzmann approximation levels. Interactions of electrons with longitudinal optical phonons and classical light field are included in the present description. The non-Markovian calculation for a prototype structure reveals significantly different gain spectra in terms of linewidth and additional polaronic features in comparison to the Markovian and Boltzmann ones. Despite strongly opposed interpretations of the origin of the transport processes in the non-Markovian or Markovian and the Boltzmann approaches, they yield comparable values of the current densities.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗