Cost-Effective Force Field Tailored for Solid-Phase Simulations of OLED Materials

A united atom force field is empirically derived by minimizing the difference between experimental and simulated crystal cells and melting temperatures for eight compounds representative of organic electronic materials used in OLEDs and other devices: biphenyl, carbazole, fluorene, 9,9′-(1,3-phenylene)bis(9H-carbazole)-1,3-bis(N-carbazolyl)benzene (mCP), 4,4′-bis(N-carbazolyl)-1,1′-biphenyl (pCBP), phenazine, phenylcarbazole, and triphenylamine. The force field is verified against dispersion-corrected DFT calculations and shown to also successfully reproduce the crystal structure for two larger compounds employed as hosts in phosphorescent and thermally activated delayed fluorescence OLEDs: N,N′-di(1-naphthyl)-N,N′-diphenyl-(1,1′-biphenyl)-4,4′-diamine (NPD), and 1,3,5-tri(1-phenyl-1H-benzo[d]imidazol-2-yl)phenyl (TPBI). The good performances of the force field coupled to the large computational savings granted by the united atom approximation make it an ideal choice for the simulation of the morphology of emissive layers for OLED materials in crystalline or glassy phases.

Enhancing field emission from a carbon nanotube array by lateral control of electrodynamic force field

Fluctuation of field emission current from carbon nanotubes (CNTs) poses certain difficulties for their use in nanobiomedical X-ray devices and imaging probes. This problem arises due to deformation of the CNTs due to electrodynamic force field and electron-phonon interaction. It is of great importance to have precise control of emitted electron beams very near the CNT tips. In this paper, a new array configuration with stacked array of CNTs is analysed and it is shown that the current density distribution is greatly localised at the middle of the array, that the scatter due to electrodynamic force field is minimised and that the temperature transients are much smaller compared to those in an array with random height distribution.

Development of a classical force field for the oxidized Si surface: application to hydrophilic wafer bonding.

We have developed a classical two- and three-body interaction potential to simulate the hydroxylated, natively oxidized Si surface in contact with water solutions, based on the combination and extension of the Stillinger-Weber potential and of a potential originally developed to simulate SiO(2) polymorphs. The potential parameters are chosen to reproduce the structure, charge distribution, tensile surface stress, and interactions with single water molecules of a natively oxidized Si surface model previously obtained by means of accurate density functional theory simulations. We have applied the potential to the case of hydrophilic silicon wafer bonding at room temperature, revealing maximum room temperature work of adhesion values for natively oxidized and amorphous silica surfaces of 97 and 90 mJm(2), respectively, at a water adsorption coverage of approximately 1 ML. The difference arises from the stronger interaction of the natively oxidized surface with liquid water, resulting in a higher heat of immersion (203 vs 166 mJm(2)), and may be explained in terms of the more pronounced water structuring close to the surface in alternating layers of larger and smaller densities with respect to the liquid bulk. The computed force-displacement bonding curves may be a useful input for cohesive zone models where both the topographic details of the surfaces and the dependence of the attractive force on the initial surface separation and wetting can be taken into account.

A reactive force field simulation of liquid-liquid phase transitions in phosphorus

A force field model of phosphorus has been developed based on density functional (DF) computations and experimental results, covering low energy forms of local tetrahedral symmetry and more compact (simple cubic) structures that arise with increasing pressure. Rules tailored to DF data for the addition, deletion, and exchange of covalent bonds allow the system to adapt the bonding configuration to the thermodynamic state. Monte Carlo simulations in the N-P-T ensemble show that the molecular (P-4) liquid phase, stable at low pressure P and relatively low temperature T, transforms to a polymeric (gel) state on increasing either P or T. These phase changes are observed in recent experiments at similar thermodynamic conditions, as shown by the close agreement of computed and measured structure factors in the molecular and polymer phases. The polymeric phase obtained by increasing pressure has a dominant simple cubic character, while the polymer obtained by raising T at moderate pressure is tetrahedral. Comparison with DF results suggests that the latter is a semiconductor, while the cubic form is metallic. The simulations show that the T-induced polymerization is due to the entropy of the configuration of covalent bonds, as in the polymerization transition in sulfur. The transition observed with increasing P is the continuation at high T of the black P to arsenic (A17) structure observed in the solid state, and also corresponds to a semiconductor to metal transition. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.

Application of static charge transfer within an ionic-liquid force field and its effect on structure and dynamics

The effects of linear scaling of the atomic charges of a reference potential on the structure, dynamics, and energetics of the ionic liquid 1,3-dimethylimidazolium chloride are investigated. Diffusion coefficients that span over four orders of magnitude are observed between the original model and a scaled model in which the ionic charges are +/- 0.5 e. While the three-dimensional structure of the liquid is less affected, the partial radial distribution functions change markedly-with the positive result that for ionic charges of +/- 0.7 e, an excellent agreement is observed with ab initio molecular dynamics data. Cohesive energy densities calculated from these partial-charge models are also in better agreement with those calculated from the ab initio data. We postulate that ionic-liquid models in which the ionic charges are assumed to be +/- 1 e overestimate the intermolecular attractions between ions, which results in overstructuring, slow dynamics, and increased cohesive energy densities. The use of scaled-charge sets may be of benefit in the simulation of these systems-especially when looking at properties beyond liquid structure-thus providing on alternative to computationally expensive polarisable force fields.

Thermodynamic properties and atomistic structure of the dry amorphous silica surface from a reactive force field model

A force field model of the Keating type supplemented by rules to break, form, and interchange bonds is applied to investigate thermodynamic and structural properties of the amorphous SiO2 surface. A simulated quench from the liquid phase has been carried out for a silica sample made of 3888 silicon and 7776 oxygen atoms arranged on a slab similar to 40 angstrom thick, periodically repeated along two directions. The quench results into an amorphous sample, exposing two parallel square surfaces of similar to 42 nm(2) area each. Thermal averages computed during the quench allow us to determine the surface thermodynamic properties as a function of temperature. The surface tension turns out to be gamma=310 +/- 20 erg/cm(2) at room temperature and gamma=270 +/- 30 at T=2000 K, in fair agreement with available experimental estimates. The entropy contribution Ts-s to the surface tension is relatively low at all temperatures, representing at most similar to 20% of the surface energy. Almost without exceptions, Si atoms are fourfold coordinated and oxygen atoms are twofold coordinated. Twofold and threefold rings appear only at low concentration and are preferentially found in proximity of the surface. Above the glass temperature T-g=1660 +/- 50 K, the mobility of surface atoms is, as expected, slightly higher than that of bulk atoms. The computation of the height-height correlation function shows that the silica surface is rough in the equilibrium and undercooled liquid phase, becoming smooth below the glass temperature T-g.

Statistical-mechanical description of classical test-particle dynamics in the presence of an external force field: modelling noise and damping from first principles

Aiming to establish a rigorous link between macroscopic random motion (described e.g. by Langevin-type theories) and microscopic dynamics, we have undertaken a kinetic-theoretical study of the dynamics of a classical test-particle weakly coupled to a large heat-bath in thermal equilibrium. Both subsystems are subject to an external force field. From the (time-non-local) generalized master equation a Fokker-Planck-type equation follows as a "quasi-Markovian" approximation. The kinetic operator thus defined is shown to be ill-defined; in specific, it does not preserve the positivity of the test-particle distribution function f(x, v; t). Adopting an alternative approach, previously introduced for quantum open systems, is proposed to lead to a correct kinetic operator, which yields all the expected properties. A set of explicit expressions for the diffusion and drift coefficients are obtained, allowing for modelling macroscopic diffusion and dynamical friction phenomena, in terms of an external field and intrinsic physical parameters.

Studies in molecular mechanics using spectroscopic data exact force field and bond in homogeneity

This thesis deals with some studies in molecular mechanic using spectroscopic data. It includes an improvement in the parameter technique for the evaluation of exact force fields, the introduction of a new and simple algebraic method for the force field calculation and a study of asymmetric variation of bonding forces along a bond.

Anharmonic force field of acetylene

The harmonic and anharmonic force field of acetylene has been determined in a least-squares calculation from recently determined data on the spectroscopic constants of various isotopic species (including the vibrational l-doubling constant). A general quadratic and cubic force field was used, but a constrained quartic force field containing only 8 of the 23 possible quartic constants. The results are discussed and compared with earlier work.