Ion Substitution Effect on Defect Formation in Two-Dimensional Transition Metal Nitride Semiconductors, AETiN2 (AE = Ca, Sr, and Ba)

Tolerance Factor and Phase Stability of the KCoO2-Type AMN2 Nitrides

In order to help understand the structural stability of KCoO2-type ternary nitrides AMN2, referring to perovskite structure, a tolerance factor t is proposed to describe the size effect on the phase/symmetry options of the experimentally accessible AMN2 nitrides. This leads to a range of t values above 0.946 for structurally stable KCoO2-type AMN2 nitrides with t values around 0.970 for the orthorhombic and tetragonal phase boundary. In contrast, most of AMN2 nitrides exhibit α-NaFeO2-type structure with t ∼ 0.898-0.946 and cations ordered or disordered rocksalt structure while t below 0.898. Employing the proposed criterion, the structure formation for other ternary AMN2 compositions with lanthanum and alkaline earth cations for the A sites were predicted, which was testified through the synthesis attempts and complemented by formation energy evaluations. The efforts to synthesize the ternary Lanthanide and alkaline earth-based AMN2 nitrides were unsuccessful, which could associate the structural instability with the large formation energies of lanthanide nitrides LaMN2 and the greater tolerance factor of 1.048 for BaTiN2. The experimentally already synthesized AMN2 nitrides could be categorized into three types with different tolerance factors, and scarce AMN2 nitrides with lower formation energies would be accessible using different synthetic routes beyond the traditional solid-state synthesis method.

KCoO2-type layered nitrides Ca1-xEuxTiN2: structural stability, electrical properties and Eu coordination chemistry

Eu2+ was used to substitute Ca in the orthorhombic KCoO2-type layered CaTiN2 to form a Ca1-xEuxTiN2 solid solution, which showed a limited substitution around x = 0.35 with the tetragonality enhanced but the orthorhombic symmetry retained and inaccessibility for the end member EuTiN2. This was in contrast with the full solid solution Ca1-xSrxTiN2, which realized a structural transition from orthorhombic to tetragonal at x = 0.5, even though Eu2+ and Sr2+ ions have similar sizes. The Eu substitution for Ca reduced the dielectric permittivity of CaTiN2 owing to the reduced structural distortion arising from the enhanced tetragonality with the substitution. First-principle theoretical calculations on the total energies and formation energies considering the 4f electrons of Eu ions and the related magnetism were performed to understand the structural stability of the hypothetical EuTiN2. Compared with CaTiN2 and SrTiN2, EuTiN2 has much higher formation energies, making it inaccessible at high temperature. The evolutions of the experimentally observed and calculated lattice parameters of the Ca1-xEuxTiN2 solid solution showed a preference for the orthorhombic phase over the tetragonal phase for the hypothetical EuTiN2, revealing a different coordination chemistry of Eu2+-N to Eu2+-O through the comparison of the structural variations of ATiN2 and ATiO3 (A = Ca, Sr, Eu).

Design, Synthesis, and Optoelectronic Properties of the High-Purity Phase in Layered AETMN2 (AE = Sr, Ba; TM = Ti, Zr, Hf) Semiconductors

We report the synthesis and optoelectronic properties of high phase-purity (>94 mol %) bulk polycrystals of KCoO₂-type layered nitrides AETMN₂ (AE = Sr, Ba; and TM = Ti, Zr, Hf), which are expected to exhibit unique electron transport properties originating from their natural two-dimensional (2D) electronic structure, but high-purity intrinsic samples have yet been reported. The bulks were synthesized using a solid-state reaction between AENH and TMN precursors with NaN₃ to achieve high N chemical potential during the reaction. The AETMN₂ bulks are n-type semiconductors with optical band gaps of 1.63 eV for SrTiN₂, 1.97 eV for BaZrN₂, and 2.17 eV for BaHfN₂. SrTiN₂ and BaZrN₂ bulks show degenerated electron conduction due to the natural high-density electron doping and paramagnetic behavior in all of the temperature ranges examined, while such unintentional carrier generation is largely suppressed in BaHfN₂, which exhibits nondegenerated electron conduction. The BaHfN₂ sample also exhibits weak ferromagnetic behavior at temperatures lower than 35 K. Density functional theory calculations suggest that the high-density electron carriers in SrTiN₂ come from oxygen impurity substitution at the N site (O_N) acting as a shallow donor even if the high-N chemical potential synthesis conditions are employed. On the other hand, the formation energy of O_N becomes larger in BaHfN₂ because of the stronger TM-N chemical bonds. Present results demonstrate that the easiness of impurity incorporation is designed by density functional calculations to produce a more intrinsic semiconductor in wider chemical conditions, opening a way to cultivating novel functional materials that are sensitive to atmospheric impurities and defects.