Atomic and electronic transport on surfaces and interfaces

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.