This work presents extensive theoretical studies focused on the mixed ion-electron transport in cubic strontium titanate (STO). A new approach to the description of this difficult system was developed within the framework of linear-scaling Kohn–Sham density functional theory, as realized in the ONETEP program. The description we present is free of any empirical parameters and relies on the Hubbard U and Hund’s J corrections applied to both Ti and O atoms. The proposed methodology was validated by considering perfect STO. Its calculated properties were found to be in close agreement with experiments and calculations at higher levels of theory. The validated approach was subsequently employed to study the oxygen vacancy (VO) and the hydrogen interstitial (IH), using very large supercells (625 ± 1 atoms). The relaxed configurations of defects were obtained through fastidious energy minimization and later analyzed from a number of perspectives. The calculated defect formation energies and charge transition levels (CTLs) were found to be in close agreement with the experiment. With the exception of the charge-neutral VO, all considered defects were found to introduce shallow states, located down to 0.2 eV below the conduction band. Our calculations revealed a large 1 eV difference in the thermodynamic and optical CTLs of the neutral VO, explaining the inconsistencies observed─till now─between conduction and spectroscopic measurements. The influence of defects on the bonding characteristics and the crystalline structure of STO was quantified, revealing that both VO and IH defects lead to a significant polarization and strong tilting of the TiO6 octahedra.
Autorzy
- dr inż. Szymon Winczewski link otwiera się w nowej karcie ,
- dr hab. inż. Jacek Dziedzic link otwiera się w nowej karcie ,
- dr inż. Tadeusz Miruszewski link otwiera się w nowej karcie ,
- prof. dr hab. inż. Jarosław Rybicki link otwiera się w nowej karcie ,
- prof. dr hab. inż. Maria Gazda link otwiera się w nowej karcie
Informacje dodatkowe
- DOI
- Cyfrowy identyfikator dokumentu elektronicznego link otwiera się w nowej karcie 10.1021/acs.jpcc.2c04681
- Kategoria
- Publikacja w czasopiśmie
- Typ
- artykuły w czasopismach
- Język
- angielski
- Rok wydania
- 2022