Charged local defects in extended systems

Defect modeling and control in structurally and compositionally complex materials

Conventional computational approaches for modeling defects face difficulties when applied to complex materials, mainly due to the vast configurational space of defects. In this Perspective, we discuss the challenges in calculating defect properties in complex materials, review recent advances in computational techniques and showcase new mechanistic insights developed from these methods. We further discuss the remaining challenges in improving the accuracy and efficiency of defect modeling in complex materials, and provide an outlook on potential research directions.

Modeling interfacial electrochemistry: concepts and tools

This paper presents a grand canonical formalism and provides tools to investigate electrochemical effects at interfaces.

Thermoelectric power factor of pure and doped ZnSb via DFT based defect calculations

The power factor of pure p-type ZnSb has been calculated via ab initio simulations assuming that the carrier concentrations are due to the doping effect of intrinsic zinc vacancies. With a vacancy concentration close to the experimental solubility limit we were able to perfectly reproduce the Power Factor measured in polycrystalline ZnSb samples. The methodology has then been successfully extended for predicting the effect of extrinsic doping elements on the thermoelectric properties of ZnSb. Germanium and tin seem to be promising p-type doping elements. In addition, we give, for the first time, an explanation of why it is difficult to synthesize polycrystalline n-type ZnSb samples. Indeed, compensative effects between intrinsic defects (zinc vacancies) and doping elements (Ga, or In) explain the existence of an optimal (and relatively high) dopant concentration necessary to convert ZnSb into an n-type semiconductor.

Oxygen and potassium vacancies in KTP calculated from first principles

The atomic geometry and energetics of oxygen and potassium vacancies in potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP) as well as their electronic and optical properties are studied within density-functional theory in dependence of their charge state. Oxygen vacancies formed between Ti and P are characterized by a negative-U behavior. Their neutral charge state is favored for Fermi levels near the conduction band and gives rise to a defect level in the band gap, which leads to an additional optical absorption peak. In contrast, the two-fold positive charge state, stable for low and intermediate values of the Fermi level, modifies the KTP optical response only slightly. Oxygen vacancies formed between two Ti atoms are two-fold positively charged, while potassium vacancies are negatively charged irrespective of the Fermi level position. In both these cases, the KTP optical response is essentially not affected.

Designing flexible 2D transition metal carbides with strain-controllable lithium storage

Efficient flexible energy storage systems have received tremendous attention due to their enormous potential applications in self-powering portable electronic devices, including roll-up displays, electronic paper, and "smart" garments outfitted with piezoelectric patches to harvest energy from body movement. Unfortunately, the further development of these technologies faces great challenges due to a lack of ideal electrode materials with the right electrochemical behavior and mechanical properties. MXenes, which exhibit outstanding mechanical properties, hydrophilic surfaces, and high conductivities, have been identified as promising electrode material candidates. In this work, taking 2D transition metal carbides (TMCs) as representatives, we systematically explored several influencing factors, including transition metal species, layer thickness, functional group, and strain on their mechanical properties (e.g., stiffness, flexibility, and strength) and their electrochemical properties (e.g., ionic mobility, equilibrium voltage, and theoretical capacity). Considering potential charge-transfer polarization, we employed a charged electrode model to simulate ionic mobility and found that ionic mobility has a unique dependence on the surface atomic configuration influenced by bond length, valence electron number, functional groups, and strain. Under multiaxial loadings, electrical conductivity, high ionic mobility, low equilibrium voltage with good stability, excellent flexibility, and high theoretical capacity indicate that the bare 2D TMCs have potential to be ideal flexible anode materials, whereas the surface functionalization degrades the transport mobility and increases the equilibrium voltage due to bonding between the nonmetals and Li. These results provide valuable insights for experimental explorations of flexible anode candidates based on 2D TMCs.

Defect-Tolerant Monolayer Transition Metal Dichalcogenides

Localized electronic states formed inside the band gap of a semiconductor due to crystal defects can be detrimental to the material's optoelectronic properties. Semiconductors with a lower tendency to form defect induced deep gap states are termed defect-tolerant. Here we provide a systematic first-principles investigation of defect tolerance in 29 monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) of interest for nanoscale optoelectronics. We find that the TMDs based on group VI and X metals form deep gap states upon creation of a chalcogen (S, Se, Te) vacancy, while the TMDs based on group IV metals form only shallow defect levels and are thus predicted to be defect-tolerant. Interestingly, all the defect sensitive TMDs have valence and conduction bands with a very similar orbital composition. This indicates a bonding/antibonding nature of the gap, which in turn suggests that dangling bonds will fall inside the gap. These ideas are made quantitative by introducing a descriptor that measures the degree of similarity of the conduction and valence band manifolds. Finally, the study is generalized to nonpolar nanoribbons of the TMDs where we find that only the defect sensitive materials form edge states within the band gap.

Off-center Tl and Na dopant centers in CsI

We use density functional theory calculations to characterize the electronic and structural properties of the Tl and Na dopant centers in CsI. We find that the Tl and Na centers can accept one or two electrons and couple to long-range relaxations in the surrounding crystal lattice to distort strongly off-center to multiple distinct minima, even without a triplet excitation. The long-range distortions are a mechanism to couple to phonon modes in the crystal, and are expected to play an important role in the phonon-assisted transport of polarons in activated CsI and subsequent light emission in this scintillator.

Electrostatic interactions in finite systems treated with periodic boundary conditions: application to linear-scaling density functional theory

We present a comparison of methods for treating the electrostatic interactions of finite, isolated systems within periodic boundary conditions (PBCs), within density functional theory (DFT), with particular emphasis on linear-scaling (LS) DFT. Often, PBCs are not physically realistic but are an unavoidable consequence of the choice of basis set and the efficacy of using Fourier transforms to compute the Hartree potential. In such cases the effects of PBCs on the calculations need to be avoided, so that the results obtained represent the open rather than the periodic boundary. The very large systems encountered in LS-DFT make the demands of the supercell approximation for isolated systems more difficult to manage, and we show cases where the open boundary (infinite cell) result cannot be obtained from extrapolation of calculations from periodic cells of increasing size. We discuss, implement, and test three very different approaches for overcoming or circumventing the effects of PBCs: truncation of the Coulomb interaction combined with padding of the simulation cell, approaches based on the minimum image convention, and the explicit use of open boundary conditions (OBCs). We have implemented these approaches in the ONETEP LS-DFT program and applied them to a range of systems, including a polar nanorod and a protein. We compare their accuracy, complexity, and rate of convergence with simulation cell size. We demonstrate that corrective approaches within PBCs can achieve the OBC result more efficiently and accurately than pure OBC approaches.

Point defects in ZnO: an approach from first principles

Recent first-principles studies of point defects in ZnO are reviewed with a focus on native defects. Key properties of defects, such as formation energies, donor and acceptor levels, optical transition energies, migration energies and atomic and electronic structure, have been evaluated using various approaches including the local density approximation (LDA) and generalized gradient approximation (GGA) to DFT, LDA+U/GGA+U, hybrid Hartree-Fock density functionals, sX and GW approximation. Results significantly depend on the approximation to exchange correlation, the simulation models for defects and the post-processes to correct shortcomings of the approximation and models. The choice of a proper approach is, therefore, crucial for reliable theoretical predictions. First-principles studies have provided an insight into the energetics and atomic and electronic structures of native point defects and impurities and defect-induced properties of ZnO. Native defects that are relevant to the n-type conductivity and the non-stoichiometry toward the O-deficient side in reduced ZnO have been debated. It is suggested that the O vacancy is responsible for the non-stoichiometry because of its low formation energy under O-poor chemical potential conditions. However, the O vacancy is a very deep donor and cannot be a major source of carrier electrons. The Zn interstitial and anti-site are shallow donors, but these defects are unlikely to form at a high concentration in n-type ZnO under thermal equilibrium. Therefore, the n-type conductivity is attributed to other sources such as residual impurities including H impurities with several atomic configurations, a metastable shallow donor state of the O vacancy, and defect complexes involving the Zn interstitial. Among the native acceptor-type defects, the Zn vacancy is dominant. It is a deep acceptor and cannot produce a high concentration of holes. The O interstitial and anti-site are high in formation energy and/or are electrically inactive and, hence, are unlikely to play essential roles in electrical properties. Overall defect energetics suggests a preference for the native donor-type defects over acceptor-type defects in ZnO. The O vacancy, Zn interstitial and Zn anti-site have very low formation energies when the Fermi level is low. Therefore, these defects are expected to be sources of a strong hole compensation in p-type ZnO. For the n-type doping, the compensation of carrier electrons by the native acceptor-type defects can be mostly suppressed when O-poor chemical potential conditions, i.e. low O partial pressure conditions, are chosen during crystal growth and/or doping.

First-principles study of (75)As NQR in arsenic-chalcogenide compounds

We present a theoretical study of the nuclear quadrupole interaction, ν(Q), of (75)As in crystalline and amorphous materials containing sulfur and selenium, and compare them with experiment. We studied a combination of hydrogen-terminated molecular clusters and periodic cells at various levels of quantum chemical theory. The results show clearly that the standard density functional theory (DFT) approximations, LDA and GGA, underestimate the nuclear quadrupole (NQR) interaction systematically, while Hartree-Fock theory overestimates it to an even greater degree. However, various levels of configuration interaction and the B3LYP hybrid exchange-correlation functional, which includes some exact exchange, give very good quantitative agreement for As bonded only to the chalcogen species. As-As bonds require highly converged basis sets. We have performed a systematic study of the effect of local distortions around an arsenic atom on ν(Q) and η. Using a simple, semiclassical model, we have combined our total energy results with our NQR calculations to predict ν(Q) lineshapes for bond angle and bond length distortions. Our predictions for lineshape, including first and second moments, are in excellent agreement with the results of Su et al for a-As(2)S(3), a-As(2)Se(3) and a-AsSe. We offer new insight into the distortions that led to this inhomogeneous broadening. Our results show clearly that, for trivalent arsenic atoms with zero or one arsenic nearest neighbor, symmetric bond stretching is the predominant contributor to the ν(Q) linewidth. However, in the presence of two arsenic nearest neighbors, distortions of the As-As-As apex angle dominates and, in fact, leads to a much larger second moment, in agreement with experiment.

Theory of defects in one-dimensional systems: application to Al-catalyzed Si nanowires

The energetic cost of creating a defect within a host material is given by the formation energy. Here we present a formulation allowing the calculation of formation energies in one-dimensional nanostructures which overcomes the difficulties involved in applying the bulk formalism and the possible passivation of the surface. We also develop a formula for the Madelung correction for general dielectric tensors. We apply this formalism to the technologically important case of Al-nanoparticle-catalyzed Si nanowires, obtaining Al concentrations significantly larger than in their bulk counterparts and predicting the fast consumption of the nanoparticles when the wires are grown on n-type substrates.

Fully ab initio finite-size corrections for charged-defect supercell calculations

In ab initio theory, defects are routinely modeled by supercells with periodic boundary conditions. Unfortunately, the supercell approximation introduces artificial interactions between charged defects. Despite numerous attempts, a general scheme to correct for these is not yet available. We propose a new and computationally efficient method that overcomes limitations of previous schemes and is based on a rigorous analysis of electrostatics in dielectric media. Its reliability and rapid convergence with respect to cell size is demonstrated for charged vacancies in diamond and GaAs.

Theory of defect levels and the "band gap problem" in silicon

Quantitative predictions of defect properties in semiconductors using density functional theory have been crippled by two issues: the supercell approximation, which has incorrect boundary conditions for an isolated defect, and approximate functionals, that drastically underestimate the band gap. I describe modifications to the supercell method that incorporate boundary conditions appropriate to point defects, identify a common electron reservoir for net charge for all defects, deal with defect banding, and incorporate bulk polarization. The computed level spectrum for an extended set of silicon defects spans the experimental gap, i.e., exhibits no band gap problem, and agrees remarkably well with experiment.