Recent work has identified a non-zinc-blende-type quaternary semiconductor, Cu2BaSnS4–xSex (CBTSSe), as a promising candidate for thin-film photovoltaics (PVs). CBTSSe circumvents difficulties of competing PV materials regarding (i) toxicity (e.g., CdTe), (ii) scarcity of constituent elements (e.g., Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)2/CdTe), and (iii) unavoidable antisite disordering that limits further efficiency improvement (e.g., in Cu2ZnSnS4–xSex). In this work, we build on the CBTSSe paradigm by computationally scanning for further improved, earth-abundant and environmentally friendly thin-film PV materials among the 16 quaternary systems I2–II–IV–VI4 (I = Cu, Ag; II = Sr, Ba; IV = Ge, Sn; VI = S, Se). The band structures, band gaps, and optical absorption properties are predicted by hybrid density-functional theory calculations. We find that the Ag-containing compounds (which belong to space groups I222 or I4̅2m) show indirect band gaps. In contrast, the Cu-containing compounds (which belong to space group P31/P32 and Ama2) show direct or nearly direct band gaps. In addition to the previously considered Cu2BaSnS4–xSex system, two compounds not yet considered for PV applications, Cu2BaGeSe4 (P31) and Cu2SrSnSe4 (Ama2), show predicted quasi-direct/direct band gaps of 1.60 and 1.46 eV, respectively, and are therefore most promising with respect to thin-film PV application (both single- and multijunction). A Cu2BaGeSe4 sample, prepared by solid-state reaction, exhibits the expected P31 structure type. Diffuse reflectance and photoluminescence spectrometry measurements yield an experimental band gap of 1.91(5) eV for Cu2BaGeSe4, a value slightly smaller than that for Cu2BaSnS4.

Chalcogenides such as CdTe, Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)2 (CIGSSe), and Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 (CZTSSe) have enabled remarkable advances in thin-film photovoltaic performance, but concerns remain regarding (i) the toxicity (CdTe) and (ii) scarcity (CIGSSe/CdTe) of the constituent elements and (iii) the unavoidable antisite disordering that limits further efficiency improvement (CZTSSe). In this work, we show that a different materials class, the BaCu2SnSexS4–x (BCTSSe) system, offers a prospective path to circumvent difficulties (i–iii) and to target new environmentally friendly and earth-abundant absorbers. Antisite disordering and associated band tailing are discouraged in BCTSSe due to the distinct coordination environment of the large Ba2+ cation. Indeed, an abrupt absorption edge and sharp associated photoluminescence emission demonstrate a reduced impact of band tailing in BCTSSe relative to CZTSSe. Our combined experimental and computational studies of BCTSSe reveal that the compositions 0 ≤ x ≤ 4 exhibit a tunable nearly direct or direct bandgap in the 1.6–2 eV range, spanning relevant values for single- or multiple-junction photovoltaic applications. For the first time, a prototype BaCu2SnS4-based thin-film solar cell has been successfully demonstrated, yielding a power conversion efficiency of 1.6% (0.42 cm2 total area). The systematic experimental and theoretical investigations, combined with proof-of-principle device results, suggest promise for BaCu2SnSexS4–x as a thin-film solar cell absorber.

Interfaces and subsurface layers are critical for the performance of devices made of 2D materials and heterostructures. Facile, nondestructive, and quantitative ways to characterize the structure of atomically thin, layered materials are thus essential to ensure control of the resultant properties. Here, we show that contact-resonance atomic force microscopy—which is exquisitely sensitive to stiffness changes that arise from even a single atomic layer of a van der Waals-adhered material—is a powerful experimental tool to address this challenge. A combined density functional theory and continuum modeling approach is introduced that yields sub-surface-sensitive, nanomechanical fingerprints associated with specific, well-defined structure models of individual surface domains. Where such models are known, this information can be correlated with experimentally obtained contact-resonance frequency maps to reveal the (sub)surface structure of different domains on the sample.Keywords: 2D materials and heterostructures; ab initio calculations; contact-resonance atomic force microscopy; elastic properties; surfaces and interfaces

Reliable, quantitative predictions of the structure of peptides based on their amino-acid sequence information are an ongoing challenge. We here explore the energy landscapes of two unsolvated 20-residue peptides that result from a shift of the position of one amino acid in otherwise the same sequence. Our main goal is to assess the performance of current state-of-the-art density-functional theory for predicting the structure of such large and complex systems, where weak interactions such as dispersion or hydrogen bonds play a crucial role. For validation of the theoretical results, we employ experimental gas-phase ion mobility-mass spectrometry and IR spectroscopy. While unsolvated Ac-Ala19-Lys + H+ will be shown to be a clear helix seeker, the structure space of Ac-Lys-Ala19 + H+ is more complicated. Our first-principles structure-screening strategy using the dispersion-corrected PBE functional (PBE + vdWTS) identifies six distinctly different structure types competing in the low-energy regime (≈16 kJ mol−1). For these structure types, we analyze the influence of the PBE and the hybrid PBE0 functional coupled with either a pairwise dispersion correction (PBE + vdWTS, PBE0 + vdWTS) or a many-body dispersion correction (PBE + MBD*, PBE0 + MBD*). We also take harmonic vibrational and rotational free energy into account. Including this, the PBE0 + MBD* functional predicts only one unique conformer to be present at 300 K. We show that this scenario is consistent with both experiments.

We describe a framework to evaluate the Hartree–Fock exchange operator for periodic electronic-structure calculations based on general, localized atom-centered basis functions. The functionality is demonstrated by hybrid-functional calculations of properties for several semiconductors. In our implementation of the Fock operator, the Coulomb potential is treated either in reciprocal space or in real space, where the sparsity of the density matrix can be exploited for computational efficiency. Computational aspects, such as the rigorous avoidance of on-the-fly disk storage, and a load-balanced parallel implementation, are also discussed. We demonstrate linear scaling of our implementation with system size by calculating the electronic structure of a bulk semiconductor (GaAs) with up to 1,024 atoms per unit cell without compromising the accuracy.

We assess the performance of a group of exchange-correlation functionals for predicting the secondary structure of peptide chains, up to a new many-body dispersion corrected hybrid density functional, dubbed PBE0+MBD* by its original authors. For the purpose of validation, we first compare to published, high-level benchmark conformational energy hierarchies (coupled cluster at the singles, doubles, and perturbative triples level, CCSD(T)) for 73 conformers of small three-residue peptides, establishing that the van der Waals corrected PBE0 functional yields an average error of only ∼20 meV (∼0.5 kcal/mol). This compares to ∼40–50 meV for nondispersion corrected PBE0 and 40–100 meV for different empirical force fields (estimated for the alanine tetrapeptide). For longer peptide chains that form a secondary structure, CCSD(T) level benchmark data are currently unaffordable. We thus turn to the experimentally well studied Ac-Phe-Ala5-LysH+ peptide, for which four closely competing conformers were established by infrared spectroscopy. For comparison, an exhaustive theoretical conformational space exploration yields at least 11 competing low energy minima. We show that (i) the many-body dispersion correction, (ii) the hybrid functional nature of PBE0+MBD*, and (iii) zero-point corrections are needed to reveal the four experimentally observed structures as the minima that would be populated at low temperature.

Reliable, quantitative predictions of the structure of peptides based on their amino-acid sequence information are an ongoing challenge. We here explore the energy landscapes of two unsolvated 20-residue peptides that result from a shift of the position of one amino acid in otherwise the same sequence. Our main goal is to assess the performance of current state-of-the-art density-functional theory for predicting the structure of such large and complex systems, where weak interactions such as dispersion or hydrogen bonds play a crucial role. For validation of the theoretical results, we employ experimental gas-phase ion mobility-mass spectrometry and IR spectroscopy. While unsolvated Ac-Ala19-Lys + H+ will be shown to be a clear helix seeker, the structure space of Ac-Lys-Ala19 + H+ is more complicated. Our first-principles structure-screening strategy using the dispersion-corrected PBE functional (PBE + vdWTS) identifies six distinctly different structure types competing in the low-energy regime (≈16 kJ mol−1). For these structure types, we analyze the influence of the PBE and the hybrid PBE0 functional coupled with either a pairwise dispersion correction (PBE + vdWTS, PBE0 + vdWTS) or a many-body dispersion correction (PBE + MBD*, PBE0 + MBD*). We also take harmonic vibrational and rotational free energy into account. Including this, the PBE0 + MBD* functional predicts only one unique conformer to be present at 300 K. We show that this scenario is consistent with both experiments.