Browsing by Author "Bauer, Eve"
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Item Effect of spin-orbit coupling on the actinide dioxides AnO2 (An=Th, Pa, U, Np, Pu, and Am): A screened hybrid density functional study(American Institute of Physics, 2012) Wen, Xiao-Dong; Martin, Richard L.; Roy, Lindsay E.; Scuseria, Gustavo E.; Rudin, Sven P.; Batista, Enrique R.; McCleskey, Thomas M.; Scott, Brian L.; Bauer, Eve; Joyce, John J.; Durakiewicz, TomaszWe present a systematic comparison of the lattice structures, electronic density of states, and band gaps of actinide dioxides, AnO2 (An=Th, Pa, U, Np, Pu, and Am) predicted by the Heyd-Scuseria-Ernzerhof screened hybrid density functional (HSE) with the self-consistent inclusion of spin-orbit coupling (SOC). The computed HSE lattice constants and band gaps of AnO2 are in consistently good agreement with the available experimental data across the series, and differ little from earlier HSE results without SOC. ThO2 is a simple band insulator (f 0), while PaO2, UO2, and NpO2 are predicted to be Mott insulators. The remainders (PuO2 and AmO2) show considerable O2p/An5f mixing and are classified as charge-transfer insulators. We also compare our results for UO2, NpO2, and PuO2 with the PBE+U, self interaction correction (SIC), and dynamic mean-field theory (DMFT) many-body approximations.Item Optical band gap of NpO2 and PuO2 from optical absorbance of epitaxial films(American Institute of Physics, 2013) McCleskey, T. Mark; Bauer, Eve; Jia, Quanxi; Burrell, Anthony K.; Scott, Brian L.; Conradson, Steven D.; Mueller, Alex; Roy, Lindsay; Wen, Xiaodong; Scuseria, Gustavo E.; Martin, Richard L.We report a solution based synthesis of epitaxial thin films of neptunium oxide and plutonium oxide. Actinides represent a challenge to first principle calculations due to features that arise from f orbital interactions. Conventional semi-local density functional theory predicts NpO2 and PuO2 to be metallic, when they are well known insulators. Improvements in theory are dependent on comparison with accurate measurements of material properties, which in turn demand high-quality samples. The high melting point of actinide oxides and their inherent radioactivity makes single crystal and epitaxial film formation challenging. We report on the preparation of high quality epitaxial actinide films. The films have been characterized through a combination of X-ray diffraction and X-ray absorption fine structure (XANES and EXAFS) measurements. We report band gaps of 2.80 ± 0.1 eV and 2.85 ± 0.1 eV at room temperature for PuO2 and NpO2, respectively, and compare our measurements with state-of-the-art calculations.