No Arabic abstract
Vacancy ordered halide perovskites have been extensively investigated as promising lead-free alternatives to halide perovskites for various opto-electronic applications. Among these Cs$_{2}$TiBr$_{6}$ has been reported as a stable absorber with interesting electronic and optical properties, such as a band-gap in the visible, and long carrier diffusion lengths. Yet, a thorough theoretical analysis of the exhibited properties is still missing in order to further assess its application potential from a materials design point of view. In this letter, we perform a detailed analysis for the established Ti-based compounds and investigate the less-known materials based on Zr. We discuss in details their electronic properties and band symmetries, highlight the similarity between the materials in terms of properties, and reveal limits for tuning electronic and optical properties within this family of vacancy ordered double perovskites that share the same electron configuration. We also show the challenges to compute accurate and meaningful quasi-particle corrections at GW level. Furthermore, we address their chemical stability against different decomposition reaction pathways, identifying stable regions for the formation of all materials, while probing their mechanical stability employing phonon calculations. We predict that Cs$_{2}$ZrI$_{6}$, a material practically unexplored to-date, shall exhibit a quasi-direct electronic band-gap well within the visible range, the smallest charge carrier effective masses within the Cs$_{2}$BX$_{6}$ (B=Ti,Zr; X=Br, I) compounds, and a good chemical stability.
Despite the exceeding 23% photovoltaic efficiency achieved in organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells obtaining, the stable materials with desirable band gap are rare and are highly desired. With the aid of first-principles calculations, we predict a new promising family of nontoxic inorganic double perovskites (DPs), namely, silicon (Si)-based halides A$_{2}$SiI$_{6}$ (A = K, Rb, Cs; X = Cl, Br, I). This family containing the earth-abundant Si could be applied for perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Particularly A$_{2}$SiI$_{6}$ exhibits superb physical traits, including suitable band gaps of 0.84-1.15 eV, dispersive lower conduction bands, small carrier effective masses, wide photon absorption in the visible range. Importantly, the good stability at high temperature renders them as promising optical absorbers for solar cells.
As a possible alternative to organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite halide, inorganic Cs2SnI6 has drawn more and more research attention recently. In order to find more Cs2SnI6 derivatives as the potential solar cell absorber materials, I- ions in Cs2SnI6 are replaced by other halogen ions and forms the Cs2SnI6-nXn (X=F, Cl, Br; n=1~6) compounds, whose atomic structures, electronic structures and optical absorption are investigated by first principles calculation. When the alloying level n increases, the mean lattice constants, the weighted Sn-X and Cs-X bond lengths all decreases linearly; the bond length of each Sn-X diminishes slightly inside the octahedral structure; Eg of Cs2SnI6-nXn increases nonlinearly. Eleven Cs2SnI6-nXn compounds have an Eg between 1.0 eV and 2.0 eV and so can be potentially used as the light absorption layer of solar cells. Their partial DOS demonstrate that as the alloying level n increases, I 5p orbital in VBM and CBM is gradually substituted by Br 4p, or Cl 3p, or F 2p orbital. The eleven Cs2SnI6-nXn alloys all have a direct bandgap although the lattice distortion induced by the alloyed X- ion.
Ba2CoWO6 (BCoW) has been synthesized in polycrystalline form by solid state reaction at 1200C. Structural characterization of the compound was done through X-ray diffraction (XRD) followed by Rietveld analysis of the XRD pattern. The crystal structure is cubic, space group Fm-3m (No 225) with the lattice parameter, a=8.210A. Optical band-gap of the present system has been calculated using the UV-Vis Spectroscopy and Kubelka-Munk function, its value being 2.45 eV. A detailed study of the electronic properties has also been carried out using the density functional theory (DFT) techniques implemented on WIEN2k. Importance of electron-electron interaction between the Co ions leading to half-metallic behavior, crystal and exchange splitting together with the hybridization between O and Co, W has been investigated using the total and partial density of states.
In oxide epitaxy, the growth temperature and background oxygen partial pressure are considered as the most critical factors that control the phase stability of an oxide thin film. Here, we report an unusual case wherein diffusion of oxygen vacancies from the substrate overpowers the growth temperature and oxygen partial pressure to deterministically influence the phase stability of $Bi_{2}WO_{6}$ thin film grown by the pulsed laser deposition technique. We show that when grown on an oxygen-deficient $SrTiO_{3}$ substrate, the $Bi_{2}WO_{6}$ film exhibits a mixture of (001) and (100)/(010)-oriented domains alongside (001)-oriented impurity $WO_{3}$ phases. The (100)/(010)-oriented $Bi_{2}WO_{6}$ phases form a self-organized 3D nanopillar-structure, yielding a very rough film surface morphology. Oxygen annealing of the substrate or using a few monolayer-thick $SrRuO_{3}$ as the blocking layer for oxygen vacancy diffusion enables growing high-quality single-crystalline $Bi_{2}WO_{6}$ (001) thin film exhibiting an atomically smooth film surface with step-terrace structure. We propose that the large oxide-ion conductivity of $Bi_{2}WO_{6}$ facilitates diffusion of oxygen vacancies from the substrate during the film growth, accelerating the evaporation of volatile Bismuth (Bi), which hinders the epitaxial growth. Our work provides a general guideline for high-quality thin film growth of Aurivillius compounds and other oxide-ion conductors containing volatile elements.
Alanates and boranates are studied intensively because of their potential use as hydrogen storage materials. In this paper we present a first-principles study of the electronic structure and the energetics of beryllium boranate, Be(BH4)2. From total energy calculations we show that - in contrast to the other boranates and alanates - hydrogen desorption directly to the elements is likely, and is at least competitive with desorption to the elemental hydride (BeH2). The formation enthalpy of Be(BH4)2 is only -0.12 eV/H2 (at T=0K). This low value can be rationalized by the participation of all atoms in the covalent bonding, in contrast to the ionic bonding observed in other boranates. From calculations of thermodynamic properties at finite temperature we estimate a decomposition temperature of 162 K at a pressure of 1 bar.