Correlations between magnetic properties and bond formation in Rh–MgO(001)

We present the results of first principles calculations for the magnetism of Rh adlayers on MgO (001), at three different adsorption sites and three different coverages, corresponding to 1, 1/2 and 1/8 monolayers. Finite magnetization is found in all cases except that of 1 Rh monolayer above the oxygen site, which is also the most stable. We examine how the magnetization changes as a function of the Rh-surface distance and relate this to changes in the real space charge density and in the density of states (DOS) as the Rh adlayer interacts with the surface. We find that increasing either the Rh-Rh interaction strength or the R h-surface interaction strength leads to reduced magnetization, while increasing the former drives a crossover from localized (atomic) to itinerant magnetism. Neither the magnetic transition itself, nor the localized-to-itinerant magnetism crossover, is found to be directly related to the formation of Rh- surface bonds. From a practical point of view, we predict that magnetism in the Rh-MgO(001) system is most likely to be found experimentally at reduced coverages and at low temperatures

Charge transfer and adhesion in Rh/MgO(001)

Ab initio density functional calculations are reported for Rh adlayers on MgO(001) at coverages of 1, 1/2 and 1/8 monolayers. It is shown that charge is transferred from oxide surface to the Rh adatoms. The transfer ranges from 0.06 e to 0.27 e, depending upon adsorption site and coverage. In comparison, transfers of 0.08 e from adatom to surface and 0.32 e surface to adatom are found for monolayer coverages of Mg and O, respectively. With the Rh adatoms, significant charge polarization of both Rh and the surface are also seen, but it is never-the-less found that the adhesion energy is linearly related to the charge transfer, with the most stable adsorption site at any particular coverage being the one at which the charge transfer is a maximum

Several different charge transfer and Ce3+ localization scenarios for Rh–CeO2(111)

We present DFT+U based electronic structure calculations in a p(3x3) slab supercell, for low coverages of atomically dispersed Rh interacting with the CeO2(111) surface, comparing Rh as an adatom, and as a dopant substituted into the surface layer. We find that, energetically, a Rh atom approaching a ceria(111) surface with both sparse O and Ce vacancies present strongly prefers to heal the Ce vacancies, but next it prefers to adsorb on a stoichiometric region rather than healing an O vacancy. In the adatom system, Rh is oxidized by electron transfer to a 4f orbital on one Ce ion in the surface layer, which is then nominally converted from Ce4+ → Ce3+ (i.e. Rh adatoms are single donors). We show that there are a number of different local minima, with Ce3+ localization at 1st, 2nd or 3rd nearest neighbour Ce sites. The second neighbour is the most stable, but all are close in energy. In the Rh-doped system (Rh replaces Ce), Rh is oxidized by charge transfer to neighbouring O atoms, and Rh doping leads to deep acceptor and donor states. Rh is not stable in the O sublattice. Moreover, based on vacancy formation energies, we find that oxygen vacancy formation is strongly enhanced in the vicinity of Rh dopants, but slightly suppressed in the vicinity of Rh adatoms

DFT plane-wave calculations of the Rh/MgO(001) interface

The Rh/MgO(001) system has been studied by periodic plane-wave density functional calculations using the VASP code and PAW potentials. Four different adsorption sites (which were reduced to three after optimization) and three different surface coverages were investigated. For the most stable site, above O, the adhesion energy was found to decrease as a function of coverage (from 2.0 to 1.1 eV as the coverage increases from 1/8 to I ML), while the adsorption energy was found to increase with surface coverage. Electron density difference plots were calculated to display some of the electron rearrangement responsible for the Rh-oxide adhesion energy, and the features of the Mg and O adsorption sites were compared.</p