arXiv subjects

Tod A. Pascal

Publications and source records attributed to Tod A. Pascal.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

An anharmonic liquid-entropy functional from the Mori-Zwanzig memory kernel

We utilize the Mori-Zwanzig memory kernel to separate the density of states of a liquid into gas, cage, and harmonic-solid components. The cage entropy is computed self-consistently as the non-Markovian excess of the full velocity response over its Markovian counterpart, and is assigned an excluded-volume entropy reference rather than a harmonic one. Employing physically motivated constraints, the resulting Three-Phase Explicit Anharmonic Thermodynamics (3PT) method reproduces thermodynamic-integration entropies of liquid metals and aligns two water models with independent free-energy perturbation benchmarks. For monoatomic Lennard-Jones liquids, 3PT's accuracy follows a universal efficiency curve governed by the kernel's non-Markovianity. We thus establish a direct, trajectory-level mapping between memory, transient cage dynamics, and liquid entropy.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2026

The Surface Sensitivity of X-ray Second Harmonic Generation as a Function of Energy

The surface sensitivity and probe depth in the x-ray regime of diamond for second harmonic generation (SHG) was investigated both analytically and computationally with velocity gauge real-time time-dependent density functional theory (VG-RT-TDDFT), which includes a full multipole expansion. This was accomplished using two different approaches, by changing the number and location of layers that can generate SHG computationally and by exploiting the symmetry of a crystal, a similar pattern emerged. We find that by 1000 eV, well above the ~285 eV of the C $K$-edge, the SHG of diamond is dominated by the bulk, quadrupole response, in agreement with our analytic calculations. The bulk response continues to grow as the energy is increased, becoming overwhelming by 7000 eV. Near the C $K$-edge the measurement is quite surface sensitive, however, this surface sensitivity reduces as the energy increases such that by 1000 eV (and certainly by 3500 eV) SHG is largely bulk sensitive. Moreover, we find that the specific details of the crystal orientation (i.e., comparing a (001)-terminated and (111)-terminated surface) appear to have significant effects on the surface sensitivity.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2025

Spectroscopic Determination of Site-Selective Ligand Binding on Single Anisotropic Nanocrystals

Organic surface ligands are integral components of nanocrystals and nanoparticles that have a strong influence on their physicochemical properties, their interaction with the environment, and their ability to self-assemble and order into higher-order structures. These hybrid nanomaterials are tunable with applications in catalysis, directed self-assembly, next-generation optoelectronics, and chemical and quantum sensing. Critically, future advances depend on our ability to rationally engineer their surface chemistry. However, fundamental knowledge of ligand-nanoparticle behavior is limited by uncertainty in where and how these ligands bind to surfaces. For nanoparticles, in particular, few characterization techniques offer both the high spatial resolution and the precise chemical mapping needed to identify specific ligand binding sites. In this study, we utilized synchrotron infrared nanospectroscopy (SINS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) together with first-principles computer simulations to validate the site-selective adsorption of organic ligands on a shaped nanocrystal surface. Specifically, we demonstrate that the sterically encumbered isocyanide ligands (CNAr^{Mes2}) preferentially bind to the high curvature features of Ag nanocubes (NCs), where low-coordinate Ag atoms are present. In contrast, isocyanide ligands that do not exhibit these steric properties show no surface selectivity. SINS serves as an effective tool to validate these surface binding interactions at the near-single molecule level. These results indicate that steric effects can be successfully harnessed to design bespoke organic ligands for fine-tuning nanocrystal surface chemistry and the properties of the nanocrystal ligand shell.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2025

Single-Molecule Vibrational Characterization of Binding Geometry Effects on Isocyanide-Metal Interactions

Isocyanide-metal binding is governed by sigma-donation and pi-back-bonding, which affects the energy of the isocyanide stretching mode-a characteristic probe for ligand-metal interactions. While extensive correlations exist between structure and spectroscopy in molecular isocyanide-metal systems, isocyanide interactions with metallic crystalline surfaces, where ligands often bind in various geometries, remain poorly understood. Conventional vibrational spectroscopies, such as infrared and Raman, lack the molecular-scale resolution needed to distinguish these inhomogeneous configurations. In contrast, inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy with scanning tunneling microscopy (STM-IETS) enables direct visualization of ligand adsorption geometries and their vibrational signatures. Using STM-IETS, here we investigate a matal-adsorbed m-terphenyl isocyanie ligand and find that adsorption geometry on Cu(100) induces a significant shift in isocyanide stretching frequency, even greater than replacing Cu(100) with Ag(111). Density functional theory confirms this shift arises from atomic-scale variations in isocyanide-metal binding. This study elucidates how atomic-scale binding influences the vibrational signatures of isocyanide ligands-an often-overlooked factor in understanding isocyanide-metal interactions.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

Molecular-Scale Insights into the Heterogeneous Interactions Between an m-Terphenyl Isocyanide Ligand and Noble Metal Nanoparticles

The structural and chemical properties of metal nanoparticles are often dictated by their interactions with molecular ligand shells. These interactions are highly material-specific and can vary significantly even among elements within the same group or materials with similar crystal structure. Precise characterization of ligand-metal interactions is crucial for the rational design of ligands and the functionalization of nanoparticles. In this study, we found that the ligation behavior with m-terphenyl isocyanide molecule differs significantly between Au and Ag nanoparticles, with distinct ligand extraction efficiencies and size dependencies. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy measurements revealed unique enhancement factors for two molecular vibrational modes between two metal surfaces, indicating different ligand binding geometries. Molecular-level characterization using scanning tunneling microscopy allowed us to directly visualize these variations between Ag and Au surfaces, which we assign as two distinct binding mechanisms. This molecular-scale visualization provides clear insights into the different ligand-metal interactions, as well as the chemical behavior and spectroscopic characteristics of isocyanide-functionalized nanoparticles.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2023

Molecular-Scale Visualization of Steric Effects of Ligand Binding to Reconstructed Au(111) Surfaces

Direct imaging of single molecules at nanostructured interfaces is a grand challenge, with potential to enable new, precise material architectures and technologies. Of particular interest are the structural morphology and spectroscopic signatures of the adsorbed molecule, where modern probes are only now being developed with the necessary spatial and energetic resolution to provide detailed information at molecule-surface interface. Here, we directly visualize the binding of individual m-terphenyl isocyanide ligands to a reconstructed Au(111) surface through scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy (IETS). The site-dependent steric pressure of the various surface features alters the vibrational fingerprints of the m-terphenyl isocyanides, which is characterized with single-molecule precision through joint experimental and theoretical approaches. This study for the first time provides molecular-level insights into the steric-pressure-enabled surface binding selectivity, as well as its effect on the chemical properties of individual surface-binding ligands.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2023

Agglomeration Drives the Reversed Fractionation of Aqueous Carbonate and Bicarbonate at the Air-water Interface

In the course of our investigations of the adsorption of ions to the air-water interface, we previously reported the surprising result that doubly-charged carbonate anions exhibit a stronger surface affinity than do singly-charged bicarbonate anions. In contrast to monovalent, weakly hydrated anions, which generally show enhanced concentrations in the interfacial region, multivalent (and strongly hydrated) anions are expected to show much weaker surface propensity. In the present work, we use resonantly enhanced deep-UV second harmonic generation spectroscopy to measure the Gibbs free energy of adsorption of both carbonate ($CO_3^{2-}$) and bicarbonate $(HCO_3^-)$ anions to the air-water interface. Contrasting the predictions of classical electrostatic theory, and in support of our previous findings from X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, we find that carbonate anions do indeed exhibit much stronger surface affinity than do the bicarbonate anions. Molecular dynamics simulation reveals that strong ion pairing of $CO_3^{2-}$ with the $Na^+$ counter-cation in the interfacial region, resulting in formation of near-neutral agglomerates of $Na^+$ and $CO_3^{2-}$ clusters, is responsible for this counterintuitive behavior. These findings not only advance our fundamental understanding of ion adsorption chemistry, but will also impact important practical processes such as ocean acidification, sea-spray aerosol chemistry, and mammalian respiration physiology.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2022

Molecular insights into the physics of poly(amidoamine)-dendrimer-based supercapacitors

Increasing the energy density in electric double layer capacitors (EDLCs), also known as supercapacitors, remains an active area of research. Specifically, there is a need to design and discover electrode and electrolyte materials with enhanced electrochemical storage capacity. Here, using fully atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, we investigate the performance of hyper-branched 'poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM)' dendrimer as an electrolyte and an electrode coating material in a graphene based supercapacitor. We investigate the performance of the capacitor using two different modeling approaches, namely the constant charge method (CCM) and the constant potential method (CPM). These simulations facilitated the direct calculation of the charge density, electrostatic potential and field, and hence the differential capacitance. We found that the presence of the dendrimer in the electrodes and the electrolyte increased the capacitance by about 65.25 % and 99.15 % respectively, compared to the bare graphene electrode based aqueous EDLCs. Further analysis revealed that these increases were due to the enhanced electrostatic screening and reorganization of the double layer structure of the dendrimer based electrolyte.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2021

Saturable absorption of free-electron laser radiation by graphite near the carbon K-edge

The interaction of intense light with matter gives rise to competing nonlinear responses that can dynamically change material properties. Prominent examples are saturable absorption (SA) and two-photon absorption (TPA), which dynamically increase and decrease the transmission of a sample depending on pulse intensity, respectively. The availability of intense soft X-ray pulses from free-electron lasers (FEL) has led to observations of SA and TPA in separate experiments, leaving open questions about the possible interplay between and relative strength of the two phenomena. Here, we systematically study both phenomena in one experiment by exposing graphite films to soft X-ray FEL pulses of varying intensity, with the FEL energy tuned to match carbon 1s to $\pi^*$ or 1s to $\sigma^*$ transitions. It is observed for lower intensities that the nonlinear contribution to the absorption is dominated by SA attributed to ground-state depletion; for larger intensities ($>10^{14}$ W/cm$^2$), TPA becomes more dominant. The relative strengths of the two phenomena depend in turn on the specific transition driven by the X-ray pulse. Both observations are consistent with our real-time electronic structure calculations. Our results reveal the competing contributions of distinct nonlinear material responses to spectroscopic signals measured in the X-ray regime, demonstrating an approach of general utility for interpreting FEL spectroscopies.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2021

The Phase Diagram of Carbon Dioxide from Correlation Functions and a Many-body Potential

The phase stability and equilibria of carbon dioxide is investigated from 125 -- 325K and 1 -- 10,000 atm using extensive molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and the Two-Phase Thermodynamics (2PT) method. We devise a direct approach for calculating phase diagrams in general, by considering the separate chemical potentials of the isolated phase at specific points on the P-T diagram. The unique ability of 2PT to accurately and efficiently approximate the entropy and Gibbs energy of liquids thus allows for assignment of phase boundaries from relatively short ($\mathrm{\sim}$ 100ps) MD simulations. We validate our approach by calculating the critical properties of the flexible Elementary Physical Model 2 (FEPM2), showing good agreement with previous results. We show, however, that the incorrect description of the short-range Pauli force and the lack of molecular charge polarization leads to deviations from experiments at high pressures. We thus develop a many-body, fluctuating charge model for CO${}_{2}$, termed CO${}_{2}$-Fq, from high level quantum mechanics (QM) calculations, that accurately captures the condensed phase vibrational properties of the solid (including the Fermi resonance at 1378 cm${}^{-1}$) as well as the diffusional properties of the liquid, leading to overall excellent agreement with experiments over the entire phase diagram. This work provides an efficient computational approach for determining phase diagrams of arbitrary systems and underscore the critical role of QM charge reorganization physics in molecular phase stability.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2021

Polarization-Resolved Extreme Ultraviolet Second Harmonic Generation from LiNbO$_3$

Second harmonic generation (SHG) spectroscopy ubiquitously enables the investigation of surface chemistry, interfacial chemistry as well as symmetry properties in solids. Polarization-resolved SHG spectroscopy in the visible to infrared regime is regularly used to investigate electronic and magnetic orders through their angular anisotropies within the crystal structure. However, the increasing complexity of novel materials and emerging phenomena hamper the interpretation of experiments solely based on the investigation of hybridized valence states. Here, polarization-resolved SHG in the extreme ultraviolet (XUV-SHG) is demonstrated for the first time, enabling element-resolved angular anisotropy investigations. In non-centrosymmetric LiNbO$_3$, elemental contributions by lithium and niobium are clearly distinguished by energy dependent XUV-SHG measurements. This element-resolved and symmetry-sensitive experiment suggests that the displacement of Li ions in LiNbO$_3$, which is known to lead to ferroelectricity, is accompanied by distortions to the Nb ion environment that breaks the inversion symmetry of the NbO$_{6}$ octahedron as well. Our simulations show that the measured second harmonic spectrum is consistent with Li ion displacements from the centrosymmetric position by $\sim$0.5 Angstrom while the Nb-O bonds are elongated/contracted by displacements of the O atoms by $\sim$0.1 Angstrom. In addition, the polarization-resolved measurement of XUV-SHG shows excellent agreement with numerical predictions based on dipole-induced SHG commonly used in the optical wavelengths. This constitutes the first verification of the dipole-based SHG model in the XUV regime. The findings of this work pave the way for future angle and time-resolved XUV-SHG studies with elemental specificity in condensed matter systems.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2020

{\AA}ngstr\"om-resolved Interfacial Structure in Organic-Inorganic Junctions

Charge transport processes at interfaces which are governed by complex interfacial electronic structure play a crucial role in catalytic reactions, energy storage, photovoltaics, and many biological processes. Here, the first soft X-ray second harmonic generation (SXR-SHG) interfacial spectrum of a buried interface (boron/Parylene-N) is reported. SXR-SHG shows distinct spectral features that are not observed in X-ray absorption spectra, demonstrating its extraordinary interfacial sensitivity. Comparison to electronic structure calculations indicates a boron-organic separation distance of 1.9 {\AA}, wherein changes as small as 0.1 {\AA} result in easily detectable SXR-SHG spectral shifts (ca. 100s of meV). As SXR-SHG is inherently ultrafast and sensitive to individual atomic layers, it creates the possibility to study a variety of interfacial processes, e.g. catalysis, with ultrafast time resolution and bond specificity.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗