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We report on the microscopic structure of water at sub- and supercritical conditions studied using X-ray Raman spectroscopy, ab initio molecular dynamics simulations, and density functional theory. Systematic changes in the X-ray Raman spectra with increasing pressure and temperature are observed. Throughout the studied thermodynamic range, the experimental spectra can be interpreted with a structural model obtained from the molecular dynamics simulations. A spatial statistical analysis using Ripley’s K-function shows that this model is homogeneous on the nanometer length scale. According to the simulations, distortions of the hydrogen-bond network increase dramatically when temperature and pressure increase to the supercritical regime. In particular, the average number of hydrogen bonds per molecule decreases to ≈0.6 at 600 °C and p = 134 MPa.

Electrochemical devices for efficient production of hydrogen as energy carrier rely still largely on rare platinum group metal catalysts. Chemically and structurally modified metal dichalcogenide MoS 2 is a promising substitute for these critical raw materials at the cathode side where the hydrogen evolution reaction takes place. For precise understanding of structure and hydrogen adsorption characteristics in chemically modified MoS 2 nanostructures, we perform comprehensive density functional theory calculations on transition metal (Fe, Co, Ni, Cu) doping at the experimentally relevant MoS 2 surfaces at substitutional Mo-sites. Clear benefits of doping the basal plane are found, whereas at the Mo- and S-edges complex modifications at the whole edge are observed. New insight into doping-enhanced activity is obtained and guidance is given for further experiments. We study a machine learning model to facilitate the screening of suitable structures and find a promising level of prediction accuracy with minimal structural input.

A classic example of solid-state topochemical reactions is the ultraviolet-light induced photodimerization of α-trans-cinnamic acid (CA). Here, we report the first observation of an X-ray-induced dimerization of CA and monitor it in situ using nonresonant inelastic X-ray scattering spectroscopy (NRIXS). The time-evolution of the carbon core-electron excitation spectra shows the effects of two X-ray induced reactions: dimerization on a short time-scale and disintegration on a long time-scale. We used spectrum simulations of CA and its dimerization product, α-truxillic acid (TA), to gain insight into the dimerization effects. From the time-resolved spectra, we extracted component spectra and time-dependent weights corresponding to CA and TA. The results suggest that the X-ray induced dimerization proceeds homogeneously in contrast to the dimerization induced by ultraviolet light. We also utilized the ability of NRIXS for direct tomography with chemical-bond contrast to image the spatial progress of the reactions in the sample crystal. Our work paves the way for other time-resolved studies on chemical reactions using inelastic X-ray scattering.

In this paper we report an X-ray emission study of bulk aqueous sulfuric acid. Throughout the range of molarities from 1 M to 18 M the sulfur Kβ emission spectra from H 2 SO 4  (aq) depend on the molar fractions and related deprotonation of H 2 SO 4 . We compare the experimental results with results from emission spectrum calculations based on atomic structures of single molecules and structures from ab initio molecular dynamics simulations. We show that the S Kβ emission spectrum is a sensitive probe of the protonation state of the acid molecules. Using non-negative matrix factorization we are able to extract the fractions of different protonation states in the spectra and the results are in good agreement with the simulation for the higher part of the concentration range.

Electrochemical devices for efficient production of hydrogen as energy carrier rely still largely on rare platinum group metal catalysts. Chemically and structurally modified metal dichalcogenide MoS is a promising substitute for these critical raw materials at the cathode side where the hydrogen evolution reaction takes place. For precise understanding of structure and hydrogen adsorption characteristics in chemically modified MoS nanostructures, we perform comprehensive density functional theory calculations on transition metal (Fe, Co, Ni, Cu) doping at the experimentally relevant MoS surfaces at substitutional Mo-sites. Clear benefits of doping the basal plane are found, whereas at the Mo- and S-edges complex modifications at the whole edge are observed. New insight into doping-enhanced activity is obtained and guidance is given for further experiments. We study a machine learning model to facilitate the screening of suitable structures and find a promising level of prediction accuracy with minimal structural input.

The Borrmann effect is the anomalous transmission of x-rays in perfect crystals under diffraction conditions. It arises from the interference of the incident and diffracted waves, which creates a standing wave with nodes at strongly absorbing atoms. Dipolar absorption of x-rays is thus diminished, which makes the crystal nearly transparent for certain x-ray wave vectors. Indeed, a relative enhancement of electric quadrupole absorption via the Borrmann effect has been demonstrated recently. Here we show that the Borrmann effect has a significantly larger impact on resonant x-ray emission than is observable in x-ray absorption. Emission from a dipole forbidden intermediate state may even dominate the corresponding x-ray spectra. Our work extends the domain of x-ray standing wave methods to resonant x-ray emission spectroscopy and provides means for novel spectroscopic experiments in d- and f-electron systems.

The properties of interfaces and surfaces play a key role in the functional design of many technologies, particularly in the development of next generation micro-electronic devices and nanocatalysts. In micro-electronics, hafnia is seen as a reliable replacement for silica in modern transistors, yet little is known about its interface with silicon and probable defects formed. Similarly, the formation of metallic nanoparticles on insulators is a promising route to new catalytically active materials, but much work is needed to understand the dynamical growth of these particles on surfaces from deposited metal atoms. In this thesis we have modeled the properties of defects in silicon-hafnia interfaces and metal adatoms on alkali halide surfaces. The calculations have been performed within the density-functional theory (DFT), supported by electron transport calculations for the interface studies. Although these results have been successful in building our understanding, we have identified the need to enhance the accuracy of the standard DFT approach without sacrificing computational speed. For this we have implemented efficient hybrid functionals into the SIESTA code and shown that it indeed improves our description of critical materials' properties.

In this paper we report an X-ray emission study of bulk aqueous sulfuric acid. Throughout the range of molarities from 1 M to 18 M the sulfur Kβ emission spectra from H2 SO4 (aq) depend on the molar fractions and related deprotonation of H2 SO4 . We compare the experimental results with results from emission spectrum calculations based on atomic structures of single molecules and structures from ab initio molecular dynamics simulations. We show that the S Kβ emission spectrum is a sensitive probe of the protonation state of the acid molecules. Using non-negative matrix factorization we are able to extract the fractions of different protonation states in the spectra, and the results are in good agreement with the simulation for the higher part of the concentration range.

We studied the isotropic Compton profile of the prototypical oxide VO\\(_2\\) across the temperature induced electronic and structural phase transition at T\\(_C\\) \\(\\approx\\) 340 K. We show that the phase transition leaves an observable signal, which facilitates Compton scattering studies of electronic structure and phase transitions in complex solids in powder form. We compare the experimental results with density functional theory calculations and find agreement in the shape of the difference profile, although the amplitude of the observed features is overestimated. The origin of the disagreement is discussed and we argue that it mainly originates mostly correlation effects beyond our current calculations and possibly to some extent, from thermal motion.

In silicon processing technology one of the most important current objectives is to achieve a controlled impurity doping in the crystal. Point defects and defect complexes present in the crystal influence in an important way the electrical activity and the diffusion properties of the dopants. In this thesis, defect complexes in silicon are studied by using quantum-mechanical electronic-structure calculations and by modeling positron annihilation experiments. The electronic-structure calculations are based on the density-functional theory and its state-of-the-art implementations, such as a plane-wave pseudopotential computer code. For the calculation of the momentum density of annihilating electron-positron pairs a new method is presented and tested. It is based on a two-particle description of the correlated pair so that the contact density depends explicitly on the whole spatial distribution of the electron state in question. The new method is found to be superior to the state-independent methods for the momentum density and provides a basis for identifying defect complexes with different chemical surroundings from their momentum distribution fingerprint. In this work, the computational methods are used to study the positron annihilation characteristics at small vacancy clusters in silicon and the properties of typical dopant atoms, which include arsenic and boron. In highly arsenic-doped silicon an electrically inactive defect complex consisting of a vacancy decorated by three arsenic atoms is identified. In boron-doped silicon the defect structures containing one boron atom are analyzed and an estimate is given for the activation energy of boron diffusion.