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Abstract. The local electronic structure of YBa2Cu3O7 has been calculated using first-principles cluster methods. Several clusters embedded in an appropriate background potential have been investigated. The electric field gradients at the copper and oxygen sites are determined and compared to previous theoretical calculations and experiments. Spin polarized calculations with different spin multiplicities have enabled a detailed study of the spin density distribution to be made and a simultaneous determination of magnetic hyperfine coupling parameters. The contributions from on-site and transferred hyperfine fields have been disentangled with the conclusion that the transferred spin densities essentially are due to nearest neighbour copper ions only with marginal influence of ions further away. This implies that the variant temperature dependencies of the planar copper and oxygen NMR spin-lattice relaxation rates are only compatible with commensurate antiferromagnetic correlations. The theoretical hyperfine parameters are compared with those derived from experimental data. PACS

The effect of zinc substitution on the local electronic structure of several cuprates is investigated using first-principles cluster calculations. Clusters comprising 5, 9, and 13 copper atoms in the cuprate plane of La2CuO4, YBa2Cu3O7, and YBa2Cu4O8 are used. Spin polarized calculations with different multiplicities in the framework of density functional theory enable a detailed study of the changes in the charge and spin density distribution induced by Zn substitution. Furthermore, doping with charge carriers in the above materials is simulated and the resulting changes in the charge distribution are compared to the changes induced by Zn impurities. These differences are then discussed in terms of a phenomenological model related to properties expected from the generic phase diagram. The effects of zinc substitution are rather local and as expected the absolute values of the Mulliken charges at both nearest and next nearest neighbor oxygens to Zn are larger than in the unsubstituted clusters. The calculated electric field gradient at Cu sites that are nearest neighbor to Zn is found to be somewhat larger than in the unsubstituted cluster whereas that of next nearest neighbors is about 5 % smaller. We conclude that the satellite peak in the Cu NQR spectrum occurring upon Zn substitution in YBa2Cu3O7 and YBa2Cu4O8 has its origin at Cu that are next nearest neighbors to Zn.

The local electronic structure of Nd2CuO4 is determined from ab-initio cluster calculations in the framework of density functional theory. Spin-polarized calculations with different multiplicities enable a detailed study of the charge and spin density distributions, using clusters that comprise up to 13 copper atoms in the CuO2 plane. Electron doping is simulated by two different approaches and the resulting changes in the local charge distribution are studied in detail and compared to the corresponding changes in hole doped La2CuO4. The electric field gradient (EFG) at the copper nucleus is investigated in detail and good agreement is found with experimental values. In particular the drastic reduction of the main component of the EFG in the electron-doped material with respect to La2CuO4 is explained by a reduction of the occupancy of the 3d 3z 2 −r 2 atomic orbital. Furthermore, the chemical shieldings at the copper nucleus are determined and are compared to results obtained from NMR measurements. The magnetic hyperfine coupling constants are determined from the spin density distribution.

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