No Arabic abstract
Halide perovskites constitute a chemically-diverse class of crystals with great promise as photovoltaic absorber materials, featuring band gaps between about 1 and 3.5 eV depending on composition. Their diversity calls for a general computational approach to predicting their band gaps. However, such an approach is still lacking. Here, we use density functional theory (DFT) and many-body perturbation theory within the GW approximation to compute the quasiparticle or fundamental band gap of a set of ten representative halide perovskites: CH$_3$NH$_3$PbI$_3$ (MAPbI$_3$), MAPbBr$_3$, CsSnBr$_3$, (MA)$_2$BiTlBr$_6$, Cs$_2$TlAgBr$_6$, Cs$_2$TlAgCl$_6$, Cs$_2$BiAgBr$_6$, Cs$_2$InAgCl$_6$, Cs$_2$SnBr$_6$, and Cs$_2$Au$_2$I$_6$. Comparing with recent measurements, we find that a standard generalized gradient exchange-correlation functional can significantly underestimate the experimental band gaps of these perovskites, particularly in cases with strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and highly dispersive band edges, to a degree that varies with composition. We show that these nonsystematic errors are inherited by one-shot G$_0$W$_0$ and eigenvalue self-consistent GW$_0$ calculations, demonstrating that semilocal DFT starting points are insufficient for MAPbI$_3$, MAPbBr$_3$, CsSnBr$_3$, (MA)$_2$BiTlBr$_6$, Cs$_2$TlAgBr$_6$, and Cs$_2$TlAgCl$_6$. On the other hand, we find that DFT with hybrid functionals leads to an improved starting point and GW$_0$ results in better agreement with experiment for these perovskites. Our results suggest that GW$_0$ with hybrid functional-based starting points are promising for predicting band gaps of systems with large SOC and dispersive bands in this technologically important class of semiconducting crystals.
Complex quantum coupling phenomena of halide perovskites are examined through ab-initio calculations and exact diagonalization of model Hamiltonians to formulate a set of fundamental guiding rules to engineer the bandgap through strain. The bandgap tuning in halides is crucial for photovoltaic applications and for establishing non-trivial electronic states. Using CsSnI$_3$ as the prototype material, we show that in the cubic phase, the bandgap reduces irrespective of the nature of strain. However, for the tetragonal phase, it reduces with tensile strain and increases with compressive strain, while the reverse is the case for the orthorhombic phase. The reduction can give rise to negative bandgap in the cubic and tetragonal phases leading to normal to topological insulator phase transition. Also, these halides tend to form a stability plateau in a space spanned by strain and octahedral rotation. In this plateau, with negligible cost to the total energy, the bandgap can be varied in a range of 1eV. Furthermore, we present a descriptor model for the perovskite to simulate their bandgap with strain and rotation. Analysis of band topology through model Hamiltonians led to the conceptualization of topological influencers that provide a quantitative measure of the contribution of each chemical bonding towards establishing a normal or topological insulator phase. On the technical aspect, we show that a four orbital based basis set (Sn-${s,p}$ for CsSnI$_3$) is sufficient to construct the model Hamiltonian which can explain the electronic structure of each polymorph of halide perovskites.
The outstanding optoelectronics and photovoltaic properties of metal halide perovskites, including high carrier motilities, low carrier recombination rates, and the tunable spectral absorption range are attributed to the unique electronic properties of these materials. While DFT provides reliable structures and stabilities of perovskites, it performs poorly in electronic structure prediction. The relativistic GW approximation has been demonstrated to be able to capture electronic structure accurately, but at an extremely high computational cost. Here we report efficient and accurate band gap calculations of halide metal perovskites by using the approximate quasiparticle DFT-1/2 method. Using AMX3 (A = CH3NH3, CH2NHCH2, Cs; M = Pb, Sn, X=I, Br, Cl) as demonstration, the influence of the crystal structure (cubic, tetragonal or orthorhombic), variation of ions (different A, M and X) and relativistic effects on the electronic structure are systematically studied and compared with experimental results. Our results show that the DFT-1/2 method yields accurate band gaps with the precision of the GW method with no more computational cost than standard DFT. This opens the possibility of accurate electronic structure prediction of sophisticated halide perovskite structures and new materials design for lead-free materials.
We analyze a data set comprising 370 GW band structures composed of 61716 quasiparticle (QP) energies of two-dimensional (2D) materials spanning 14 crystal structures and 52 elements. The data results from PAW plane wave based one-shot G$_0$W$_0$@PBE calculations with full frequency integration. We investigate the distribution of key quantities like the QP self-energy corrections and renormalization factor $Z$ and explore their dependence on chemical composition and magnetic state. The linear QP approximation is identified as a significant error source and propose schemes for controlling and drastically reducing this error at low computational cost. We analyze the reliability of the $1/N_text{PW}$ basis set extrapolation and find that is well-founded with narrow distributions of $r^2$ peaked very close to 1. Finally, we explore the validity of the scissors operator approximation concluding that it is generally not valid for reasonable error tolerances. Our work represents a step towards the development of automatized workflows for high-throughput G$_0$W$_0$ band structure calculations for solids.
Quasi-particle self-consistent $GW$ calculations are presented for the band structures of LiGaO2 and NaGaO2 in the orthorhombic $Pna2_1$ tetrahedrally coordinated crystal structures. Symmetry labeling of the bands near the gap is carried out and effective mass tensors are extracted for the conduction band minimum and crystal field split valence band maxima at $Gamma$. The gap is found to be direct at $Gamma$ and is 5.81 eV in LiGaO2 and 5.46 eV in NaGaO2. Electron-phonon coupling zero-point normalization is estimated to lower these gaps by about 0.2 eV. Optical response functions are calculated within the independent particle long wavelength limit and show the expected anisotropy of the absorption onsets due to the crystal field splitting of the VBM. The results show that both materials are promising candidates as ultrawide gap semiconductors with wurtzite based tetrahedrally bonded crystal structures. Direct transitions from the lowest conduction band to higher bands, relevant to n-type doped material and transparent conduction applications are found to start only above 3.9 eV and are allowed for only one polarization, and several higher band transitions are forbidden by symmetry. Alternative crystal structures, such as $Rbar{3}m$ and a rocksalt type phase with tetragonally distorted $P4/mmm$ spacegroup, both with octahedral coordination of the cations are also investigated. They are found to have higher energy but about 20 % smaller volume per formula unit. The transition pressures to these phases are determined and for LiGaO2 found to be in good agreement with experimental studies. The $Rbar{3}m$phase also has a comparably high but slightly indirect band gap while the rocksalt type phase if found to have a considerably smaller gap of about 3.1 eV in LiGaO2 and 1.0 eV in NaGaO2.
Corner-shared ABX$_3$ perovskites have long featured prominently in solid-state chemistry and condensed matter physics. Still, the joint understanding of their two main subgroups-halides and oxides-has not been fully developed. Indeed, unlike the case that compounds having a single repeated motif (monomorphous), certain cubic perovskites can manifest a non-thermal distribution of local motifs (polymorphous networks). Such intrinsic deformations can include positional degrees of freedom. Unlike thermal motion, such intrinsic distortions do not time-average to zero. The present study compares electronic structure features of oxide and halide perovskites starting from the intrinsic polymorphous network described by DFT minimization of the internal energy, continuing to finite temperature thermal disorder using AIMD. We find that (i) different oxide vs. halide ABX$_3$ compounds adopt different energy-lowering distortion modes. The DFT calculated pair distribution function (PDF) of SrTiO$_3$ agrees with the recently measured PDF. (ii) In both oxides and halides, such intrinsic distortions lead to bandgap blueshifts with respect to monomorphous structure. (iii) For oxide perovskites, high-temperature AIMD simulations initiated from the polymorphous structures reveal that the thermally-induced distortions can lead to a bandgap redshift. (iv) In contrast, for cubic CsPbI$_3$, both the intrinsic distortions and the thermal distortions contribute in tandem to bandgap blueshift, the former, intrinsic effect being dominant. (v) In the oxide SrTiO$_3$ and CaTiO$_3$ (but not in halide), octahedral tilting leads to the emergence of a distinct $Gamma$-$Gamma$ direct bandgap component as a secondary valley minimum to the well-known indirect R-$Gamma$ gap. Understanding such intrinsic vs. thermal effects on oxide vs. halide perovskites holds the potential for designing target electronic properties.