Dirac materials are characterized by exceptional mobility, orders of magnitude higher than any semiconductor, due to the massless pseudorelativistic nature of the Dirac fermions. These systems being semimetallic, the lack of a genuine band-gap poses a serious limitation to their possible applications in electronics. We recently demonstrated that thin TiO2 nanowires can exhibit 1D Dirac states similar to metallic carbon nanotubes, with the crucial difference that these states lie inside the conduction band in proximity of a wide band gap. We analyze the robustness of the Dirac states respect to an Anderson disorder model and substitutional impurity and compare to different one dimensional systems. The results suggest that thin anatase TiO2 nanowires can be a promising candidate material for switching devices.

We simulate the thermodynamics and kinetics of the drift/diffusion of oxygen vacancy defects in rutile TiO2, using the density-functional based tight-binding (DFTB) method. Both static and dynamic simulations have been performed. Results indicate that DFTB is well suited to examine the dynamic behavior of oxygen vacancies in TiO2. Detailed analysis shows, that strong model size dependence in relative diffusion barrier heights between different diffusion processes requires great care in defect diffusion simulations in TiO2. Thermodynamic results on the influence of an external electric field show that, due to the large dielectric constant, the coulomb driving force on oxygen vacancy diffusion is very small. Dynamic simulation of the influence of electric fields on the diffusion requires the use of advanced molecular dynamics acceleration schemes.

A density-functional based tight binding method was used to study elementary steps in the growth of ultrananocrystalline (UNCD) diamond. It was shown previously that C2 dimers are the dominant growth species in hydrogen-poor argon plasmas. Recent experimental evidence shows that nitrogen addition to the plasma profoundly changes the morphology of the UNCD film. CN species are believed to play a major role. Reactions of C2 and CN molecules with reconstructed diamond (100) surfaces were studied. A single CN prefers an end-on attachment to a surface atom on the unhydrided (100) surface with its C end down. It is shown how further C2 addition to the surface leads to CN-mediated diamond growth and how the CN species remain on top of the growing diamond layer.

We present density-functional theory based studies for several types of line defects in both hexagonal and cubic GaN. {10−10} type surfaces play an important role in hexagonal GaN since similar configurations occur at open-core screw dislocations and nanopipes as well as at the core of threading edge dislocations. Except for full-core screw dislocations which possess heavily strained bonds all investigated stoichiometric extended defects in hexagonal GaN do not induce deep acceptor states in the band-gap and thus cannot be responsible for the yellow luminescence. However, electrically active point defects in particular gallium vacancies and oxygen related defect complexes are found to be trapped at the stress field of the dislocations. Preliminary calculations for cubic GaN find the ideal stoichiometric 60°-dislocations to be electrically active. As in hexagonal material, vacancies and impurities like oxygen are likely to be trapped at the dislocation core.

Nanocrystalline diamond films grown on Si substrates at 800°C from hydrogen-poorplasmas have a number of highly desirable mechanical and electronic properties. Impurities were found by SIMS measurements to be uniformly distributed throughout the thickness of the films at a level of 1017–1018 cm−3. It is likely that the impurities are located at the grain boundaries, which play a crucial role in controlling important characteristics of the films, such as electrical conductivity and electron emission. Density-functional based tight-binding (DFTB) molecular dynamics simulations were performed for diamond high-energy high-angle (100) twist grain boundaries with impurities such as N, Si and H

We present density-functional theory based studies for several types of line defects in both hexagonal and cubic GaN. {10-10} type surfaces play an important role in hexagonal GaN since similar configurations occur at open-core screw dislocations and nanopipes as well as at the core of threading edge dislocations. Except for full-core screw dislocations which possess heavily strained bonds all investigated stoichiometric extended defects in hexagonal GaN do not induce deep acceptor states in the band-gap and thus cannot be responsible for the yellow luminescence. However, electrically active point defects in particular gallium vacancies and oxygen related defect complexes are found to be trapped at the stress field of the dislocations. Preliminary calculations for cubic GaN find the ideal stoichiometric 60°-dislocations to be electrically active. As in hexagonal material, vacancies and impurities like oxygen are likely to be trapped at the dislocation core.

We perform parametrized density-functional calculations to predict the stability and formation mechanism of GaN nanotubes. Strain energies of GaN nanotubes are comparable to those of carbon nanotubes, suggesting the possibility for the formation of GaN nanotubes. We note that an intermediate phase with [4,6,10] polygons exist at armchair tube edge, which may play as a nucleation seed of further tube growth.

We performed density-functional calculations to search for adsorption sites and predict maximum hydrogen storage capacity in carbon nanotubes. Our calculations show that the storage capacity of hydrogen, limited by the repulsive forces between H2 molecules inside nanotubes, increases linearly with tube diameters in single-walled nanotubes, whereas this value is independent of tube diameters in multi-walled nanotubes. We predict that H storage capacity in (10,10) nanotubes can exceed 14 wt % (161 kg H2/m3).

We perform parametrized density-functional calculations to predict the stability and formation mechanism of GaN nanotubes. Strain energies of GaN nanotubes are comparable to those of carbon nanotubes, suggesting the possibility for the formation of GaN nanotubes. We note that an intermediate phase with [4,6,10] polygons exist at armchair tube edge, which may play as a nucleation seed of further tube growth.