Environmental modifications of atomic properties: The ground and 1s2p excited states of compressed helium.

Atoms remaining as recognizably distinct constituents of bulk condensed phases can have properties modified from those of the isolated species. Dense helium bubbles at high pressures are a common form of radiation damage degrading the mechanical and electrical properties of host materials. Detailed knowledge is critical for predicting their long term performance.

Superalkali-Alkalide Interactions and Ion Pairing in Low-Polarity Solvents.

The nature of anionic alkali metals in solution is traditionally thought to be "gaslike" and unperturbed. In contrast to this noninteracting picture, we present experimental and computational data herein that support ion pairing in alkalide solutions. Concentration dependent ionic conductivity, dielectric spectroscopy, and neutron scattering results are consistent with the presence of superalkali-alkalide ion pairs in solution, whose stability and properties have been further investigated by DFT calculations.

Relativity and the periodic table.

The periodic table provides a deep unifying principle for understanding chemical behaviour by relating the properties of different elements. For those belonging to the fifth and earlier rows, the observations concerning these properties and their interrelationships acquired a sound theoretical basis by the understanding of electronic behaviour provided by non-relativistic quantum mechanics. However, for elements of high nuclear charge, such as occur in the sixth and higher rows of the periodic table, the systematic behaviour explained by non-relativistic quantum mechanics begins to fail.

Electronic excitation in bulk and nanocrystalline alkali halides.

The lowest energy excitations in bulk alkali halides are investigated by considering five different excited state descriptions. It is concluded that excitation transfers one outermost halide electron in the fully ionic ground state to the lowest energy vacant s orbital of one closest cation neighbour to produce the excited state termed dipolar. The excitation energies of seven salts were computed using shell model description of the lattice polarization produced by the effective dipole moment of the excited state neutral halogen-neutral metal pair.

Theoretical study of the structures and electronic properties of all-surface KI and CsI nanocrystals encapsulated in single walled carbon nanotubes.

The structural and electronic properties of all-surface KI and CsI crystals encapsulated in single-walled carbon nanotubes are investigated theoretically with an ionic and atomistic approach using the GULP program. The short-range interactions, derived from Dirac-Fock wavefunctions, were augmented with damped dipole-dipole and dipole-quadrupole dispersive attractions. The uncorrelated interionic interactions computed using the relativistic crystal ion and relativistic integral programs accounted for anion in-crystal modifications while being exact given the ion wavefunctions.

A theoretical study of the cohesion of noble gases on graphite.

The interactions of the noble gases with a graphene sheet are investigated theoretically. The short range repulsive interaction between the noble gas and each carbon atom is described using Hartree-Fock atomic densities and a local density functional theory with the exchange functional corrected for the finite range of the interaction by introducing a Rae-type correction depending on the effective number of electrons. The long range interactions are introduced as the sum of the Axilrod-Teller triple-dipole interaction plus the dipole-dipole and dipole-quadrupole dispersive attractions damped according to the theory of Jacobi and Csanak.

Fundamental global model for the structures and energetics of nanocrystalline ionic solids.

This paper presents a general theory elucidating the relationships between the structures and cohesive energetics of alkali halide nanocrystals consisting of small sections of bulk rocksalt structures with m(1) and m(2) rows but infinite along the z axis. The theory introduces the electrostatic interactions between the ions treated as point charges and the short-range repulsions between the closest ion neighbors with the latter terms written in the Born form Ar(-)(n). Minimum energy structures are defined by the distances a(e) and b(e) separating the closest ions perpendicular and parallel to the z direction.