New generation Indium based lead-free Cs2InAgCl6 is a promising halide material in photovoltaic applications due to its good air stability and non-toxic behavior. But its wide band gap (>3 eV) is not suitable for solar spectrum and hence reducing the photoelectronic efficiency for device applications. Here we report a significant band gap reduction from 3.3 eV to 0.6 eV by substitutional doping and its effect on opto-electronic and opto-thermoelectric properties from first-principles study. The results predict that Sn/Pb and Ga & Cu co-doping enhance the density of states significantly near the valence band maximum (VBM) and thus reduce the band gap by shifting the VBM upward while the alkali-metals (K/Rb) slightly increase the band gap. A strong absorption peak near Shockley-Queisser limit is observed in co-doped case while in Sn/Pb-doped case, we notice a peak in the middle of the visible region of solar spectrum. The nature of band gap is indirect with Cu-Ga/Pb/Sn doping with a significant reduction in the band gap. We observe a significant increase in the power factor (PF) (2.03 mW/mK2) for n-type carrier in Pb-dpoing, which is ~3.5 times higher than the pristine case (0.6 mW/mK2) at 500 K.
The low energy band structure near the band gap determines the electrical performance of thermoelectric materials. Here, by using the hybrid-density functional theory (hybrid-DFT) calculations, we calculate the low energy band structure of Bi2Te3, Sb2Te3, Bi2Se3 and Sb2Se3 in tetradymite phase. We find that the band structure characteristics are very sensitive the selection of the exchange energy functional. The predictability of the band gaps and band degeneracies is not enhanced in hybrid-DFT calculations, as compared to DFT calculations. The poor prediction of low energy band structures is …
We study the electronic structure and thermoelectric properties of recently synthesized CoAsSb. The calculated bandgap becomes more accurate for increasingly-complex electronic structure methods: generalized gradient approximation, hybrid functionals, self-consistent linearized quasiparticle GW method (LQSGW), and LQSGW with simplified vertex corrections. By equating the bandgaps of each method from a rigid shift of the bands, we evaluate the contributions made to thermoelectric properties beyond the bandgap. In doing so, we evaluate the efficacy of a common-practice: a rigid shift applied to …
We have investigated the optoelectronic and thermoelectric properties of hexagonal antiperovskites Ba$_3$DN (D = Sb, Bi) using DFT calculations. The calculated equilibrium lattice parameters of both compounds are in good agreement with the available data. The calculated electronic structures indicate that they are direct bandgap semiconductors and the values of bandgaps are 1.35 and 1.33 eV for Ba3SbN and Ba3BiN, respectively. The inclusion of the spin-orbit effect split the conduction bands and the band gap of Ba$_3$BiN is much reduced. These two compounds have a high absorption coefficient, …
Antiperovskite materials are well known for their high thermoelectric performance and gained huge research interest. Here, we report the structural stability and transport properties of Sr$_3$AsN from a precise first-principles study. The calculated equilibrium lattice parameters are in a good agreement with the available data. We find that Sr$_3$AsN is a mechanically, energetically and dynamically stable at ambient condition. Our calculated electronic structure indicates that it is a direct bandgap semiconductor, with a value ~1.2 eV. Sr-4d and N-2p orbitals mainly formulate the direct bandga…
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 tim…
We calculate the phonon-dispersion relations of several two-dimensional materials and diamond using the density-functional based tight-binding approach (DFTB). Our goal is to verify if this numerically efficient method provides sufficiently accurate phonon frequencies and group velocities to compute reliable thermoelectric properties. To this end, the results are compared to available DFT results and experimental data. To quantify the accuracy for a given band, a descriptor is introduced that summarizes contributions to the lattice conductivity that are available already in the harmonic approx…
We have explored the mechanical, electronic, optical and thermoelectric properties of p-type half-Heusler compound BaAgP for the first time using density functional theory based calculations. The mechanical and dynamical stability of this compound is confirmed by studying the Born stability criteria and phonon dispersion curve, respectively. It is soft, ductile and elastically anisotropic. The atomic bonding along a-axis is stronger than that along c-axis. The calculated electronic structure reveals that the studied compound is an indirect band gap semiconductor. The analysis of charge density…
The Lorenz number (L) contained in the Wiedemann-Franz law represents the ratio of two kinetic parameters of electronic charge carriers: the electronic contribution to the thermal conductivity (K_el) and the electrical conductivity (sigma), , and can be expressed as LT=K_el/sigma where T is temperature. We demonstrate that the Lorenz number simply equals to the ratio of two thermodynamic quantities: the electronic heat capacity (c_el) and the electrochemical capacitance (c_N) through LT=c_el/c_N , a purely thermodynamic quantity, and thus it can be calculated solely based on the electron densi…
The structural and electronic properties of the clathrate compounds Ba$_{8}$Al$_{x}$Si$_{46-x}$ and Sr$_{8}$Al$_{x}$Si$_{46-x}$ are studied from first principles, considering an Al content $x$ between 6 and 16. Due to the large number of possible substitutional configurations we make use of a special iterative cluster-expansion approach, to predict ground states and quasi-degenerate structures in a highly efficient way. These are found from a simulated annealing technique where millions of configurations are sampled. For both compounds, we find a linear increase of the lattice constant with th…
Being a true two-dimensional crystal, graphene has special properties. In particular, a point-like defect in graphene may have effects in the long range. This peculiarity questions the validity of using a supercell geometry in an attempt to explore the properties of an isolated defect. Still, this approach is often used in ab-initio electronic structure calculations, for instance. How does this approach converge with the size of the supercell is generally not tackled for the obvious reason of keeping the computational load to an affordable level. The present paper addresses the problem of subs…
Tailoring the Optoelectronic, Photocatalytic, Thermoelectric and Thermodynamic Properties of Halides Li2InBiX6 (X = Cl, Br, I) for Energy Conversion: A DFT Study
Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University（公主诺拉·宾特·阿卜杜勒拉赫曼大学）；University of West Bohemia（西波希米亚大学）；University of Sargodha（萨尔戈达大学）；King Saud University（沙特国王大学）；Gachon University（迦南大学）
In this work, we first perform a systematic search for high-efficiency three-dimensional (3D) and two-dimensional (2D) thermoelectric materials by combining semiclassical transport techniques with density functional theory (DFT) calculations and then train machine-learning models on the thermoelectric data. Out of 36000 three-dimensional and 900 two-dimensional materials currently in the publicly available JARVIS-DFT database, we identify 2932 3D and 148 2D promising thermoelectric materials using a multi-steps screening procedure, where specific thresholds are chosen for key quantities like b…
As the energy problem becomes more prominent, researches on thermoelectric (TE) materials have deepened over the past few decades. Low thermal conductivity enables thermoelectric materials better thermal conversion performance. In this study, based on the first principles and phonon Boltzmann transport equation, we studied the thermal conductivities of single-layer WSe2 under several defect conditions using density functional theory (DFT) as implemented in the Vienna Ab-initio Simulation Package (VASP). The lattice thermal conductivities of WSe2 under six kinds of defect states, i.e., PS, SS-c…
Rare-earth monopnictides have attracted much attention due to their unusual electronic and topological properties for potential device applications. Here, we study rock-salt structured lanthanum monopnictides LaX (X = P, As) by density functional theory (DFT) simulations. We show systematically that a meta-GGA functional combined with scissor correction can efficiently and accurately compute electronic structures on a fine DFT $k$-grid, which is necessary for converging thermoelectric calculations. We also show that strain engineering can effectively improve thermoelectric performance. Under t…
On the basis of density functional theory (DFT) calculations thermoelectric properties are derived for Sb-doped skutterudites MPt$_4$Ge$_{12-x}$Sb$_x$ with M=Ba,La,Th. It is predicted that the originally very small absolute values of Seebeck coefficients $|S|$ of the undoped compounds is increased by factors of 10 or more for suitable dopings. The optimal dopings correspond to a "magic" valence electron number for which all electronic states up to a (pseudo)gap are filled. The theoretical findings are corroborated by measurements of $S$ for LaPt$_4$Ge$_{12-x}$Sb$_x$ skutterudites. DFT derived …
Researchers have addressed the non-traditional power generation schemes as alternatives to the traditional fossil-fuel methods enormously since the scientific community has serious concerns about shortages of energy on our planet for future generations. In this scenario, the innovative materials for photovoltaic and thermoelectric device applications are required by addressing current issues of instability and efficiency. Perovskites are very popular in this regard particularly having higher power conversion efficiency of 25.2% in the case of solar cells. In the current article, we investigate…
A finite electronic band gap is a standard filter in high-throughput screening of materials using density functional theory (DFT). However, because of the systematic underestimation of band gaps in standard DFT approximations, a number of compounds may incorrectly be predicted metallic. In a more accurate treatment, such materials may instead appear as low band gap materials and could e.g. have good thermoelectric properties if suitable doping is feasible. To explore this possibility, we performed hybrid functional calculations on 1093 cubic materials listed in the MaterialsProjects database w…
We propose a new method for accurately calculating electrical transport properties of a lightly-doped thermoelectric material from density functional theory (DFT) calculations, based on experimental data and density functional theory results for the corresponding undoped material. We employ this approach because hybrid DFT calculations are prohibitive for the large supercells required to model low dopant concentrations comparable to those achieved experimentally for high-performing thermoelectrics. Using zinc antimonide as our base material, we find that the electrical transport properties cal…
Using the density functional theory (DFT) in combination with Boltzmann transport theory, the influence of Mg concentrations (x) doping on the thermoelectric properties of Hg1-xMgxSe ternary alloys was systematically investigated. The generalized gradient approximations of Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (GGA-PBE) have been used to illustrate the exchange correlation potential. Various thermoelectric transport parameters, such as the Seebeck coefficient (S), the thermal conductivity over relaxation time, the electrical conductivity over relaxation time, the power factor (PF) and the figure of merit (ZT…
DFT aided prediction of phase stability, optoelectronic and thermoelectric properties of A2AuScX6 (A= Cs, Rb; X= Cl, Br, I) double perovskites for energy harvesting technology
Vanadium-Engineered Co2NiSe4 Nanomaterial: Coupled Thermoelectric, Piezoelectric, and Electronic Optimization via DFT+U for Advanced Energy Applications
We report $^{59}$Co, $^{93}$Nb, and $^{121}$Sb nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements combined with density functional theory (DFT) calculations on a series of half-Heusler semiconductors, including NbCoSn, ZrCoSb, TaFeSb and NbFeSb, to better understand their electronic properties and general composition-dependent trends. These materials are of interest as potentially high efficiency thermoelectric materials. Compared to the other materials, we find that ZrCoSb tends to have a relatively large amount of local disorder, apparently antisite defects. This contributes to a small excitation…
The thermoelectric properties and electronic band structures for Se-doped Co3SnInS2 were examined. The parent compound of this material (Co3Sn2S2) has two kinds of Sn sites (Sn1 and Sn2 sites). The density functional theory (DFT) calculations show that the indium substitution at the Sn2 site induces a metallic band structure, on the other hand, a semiconducting band structure is obtained from substitution at the Sn1 site. However, according to the previous reports, since the indium atom prefers to replace the tin atom at the Sn1 site rather than the Sn2 site, the resistivity of Co3SnInS2 shows…
The electrical, magnetic, thermal and optical characteristics of Gallium (Ga) doped silicene are investigated using density functional theory (DFT). The effect of doping is studied by tuning dopant concentrations as well as examining varied doping distances, and atomic dopant interactions for the same substitutional doping concentration. The results indicate that the Ga atoms alter the band structure and the band gap in the silicene monolayer at various concentrations, which can be referred back to to the repulsive interaction of Ga-Ga atoms. The band gap is determined by the interaction stren…
Here, we study the thermoelectric properties of topological semimetal CoSi in the temperature range $300-800$ K by using combined experimental and density functional theory (DFT) based methods. CoSi is synthesized using arc melting technique and the Rietveld refinement gives the lattice parameters of a = b = c = 4.445 Å. The measured values of Seebeck coefficient (S) shows the non-monotonic behaviour in the studied temperature range with the value of $\sim-$81 $μ$V/K at room temperature. The $|S|$ first increases till 560 K ($\sim-$93 $μ$V/K) and then decreases up to 800 K ($\sim-$84 $μ$V/K) i…
The electronic structure and thermoelectric properties of ZrRuTe-based Half-Heusler compounds are studied using density functional theory (DFT) and Boltzmann transport formalism. Based on rigorous computations of electron relaxation time $τ$ considering electron-phonon interactions and lattice thermal conductivity $κ_l$ considering phonon-phonon interactions, we find ZrRuTe to be an intrinsically good thermoelectric material. It has a high power factor of $\sim 2\times 10^{-3}$ W/m-K$^{2}$ and low $κ_l\sim 10$ W/m-K at 800 K. The thermoelectric figure of merit $ZT \sim 0.13$ at 800 K is higher…
The strain effect on electronic structure and thermoelectric properties of Higher Manganese Silicides (HMSs) Mn4Si7 was studied using Density Functional Theory (DFT) and through solving Boltzman Transport Equation (BTE). We found that the tensile strain attempts to reduce the band gap while the compressive strain not much affect to band gap. The Seebeck coeficient was found to be increased with increasing temperature, which is very consistent to experiments. The electrical conductivity and power factor show highly degree of anisotropy, where in-plane direction is more dominant. The different b…
We introduce the use of Crystal Graph Convolutional Neural Networks (CGCNN), Fully Connected Neural Networks (FCNN) and XGBoost to predict thermoelectric properties. The dataset for the CGCNN is independent of Density Functional Theory (DFT) and only relies on the crystal and atomic information, while that for the FCNN is based on a rich attribute list mined from Materialsproject.org. The results show that the optimized FCNN is three layer deep and is able to predict the scattering-time independent thermoelectric powerfactor much better than the CGCNN (or XGBoost), suggesting that bonding and …
An important contribution to the thermoelectric and spin-caloric transport properties in magnetic materials at elevated temperatures is the formation of a spin-disordered state due to local moment fluctuations. This effect has not been largely investigated so far. We focus on various magnetic nanostructures of CrTe in the form of thin layers or nanowires embedded in ZnTe matrix, motivated by the miniaturization of spintronics devices and by recent suggestions that magnetic nanostructures can lead to extraordinary thermoelectric effects due to quantum confinement. The electronic structure of th…
The recently proposed density functional theory for steady-state transport (i-DFT) is extended to include temperature gradients between the leads. Within this framework, a general and exact expression is derived for the linear Seebeck coefficient which can be written as the sum of the Kohn-Sham coefficient and an exchange-correlation contribution. The formalism is applied to the single-impurity Anderson model for which approximate exchange-correlation functionals are suggested for temperatures both above and below the Kondo temperature. A certain structural property of the exchange-correlation…
Point defects in Ga- and Al-doped ZnO thin films are studied by means of first principles electronic structure calculations. Candidate defects are identified to explain recently observed differences in electrical and spectroscopical behavior of both systems. Substitutional doping in Ga-ZnO explain the metallic behavior of the electrical properties. Complexes of interstitial oxygen with substitutional Ga can behave as acceptor and cause partial compensation, as well as gap states below the conduction band minimum as observed in photoemission experiments. Zn vacancies can also act as compensatin…
Heusler type compounds have long been recognized as potential thermoelectric (TE) materials. Here, the experimentally observed TE properties of Fe$_{2}$VAl are understood through electronic structure calculations in the temperature range of $300-800$ K. The observed value of $S$ is $\sim-$138 $μ$V/K at 300 K. Then, the $|S|$ decreases with increase in temperature up to the highest temperature with the value of $\sim-$18 $μ$V/K at 800 K. The negative sign of $S$ in the full temperature window signifies the dominating $n$-type character of the compound. The temperature dependent of electrical co…
Defects creation and annihilation is a fundamental concept in device fabrication. This report studies the optical bandgap modification in MgO by MeV Ni ion irradiation-induced defect states between valance and conduction band. Ion implantation on MgO single crystal produces substitutional defect states along with F (anionic vacancy center), $F_2$, other oxygen vacancy center and V (cationic vacancy center) centers confirmed from absorption and photoluminescence spectra that can be applied as filament in valance charge memory based resistive random access memories. The variation of optical band…
A code for calculating the semi-classical thermoelectric and electronic transport properties is described. It uses the Landauer transport theory, which is equivalent to the Boltzmann theory, by introducing a central quantity-the distribution of modes. Its usage enables the so-called band-counting algorithm that can speed up the calculation and offers the potential to rapidly screen DFT band structures. Good agreements are found when comparing the results obtained using band-counting and established Fourier-based interpolation methods.
Utilizing a material in thermoelectric applications requires a mechanical, thermal, and lattice stability as well a high figure of merit (ZT). In this work, we present the structural, electronic, magnetic, mechanical, thermodynamic, dynamic, and thermoelectric properties of CoFeYGe (Y = Ti, Cr) quaternary Heusler compounds using the density functional theory (DFT). The calculated mechanical properties and phonon dispersions reveal that the structures of these compounds are stable. Both CoFeCrGe and CoFeTiGe compounds show a ferromagnetic and ferrimagnetic half-metallic behavior with band gaps …
Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dinitride (HfN2) has been studied for their optoelectronic, piezoelectric, and thermoelectric properties. Both monolayer and bilayer of HfN2 were studied using density functional theory (DFT) and Boltzmann transport equation (BTE). The bilayer of HfN2 with different stacking layers (AA and AB) showed different electronic properties. The optical property of the material suggests that it is a very good absorber in the ultraviolet (UV) region thus, can be used as a UV-photodetector and as an absorber layer in photovoltaic devices. The piezoelectric properties…
We report the structural, mechanical, electronic, optical, thermoelectric properties and spectroscopic limited maximum efficiency (SLME) of oxide double perovskite structure Ba2SbNbO6 and Ba2SbTaO6 compounds. All the investigations were performed through the first-principles density functional theory (DFT). The obtained values for the elastic constants reveal the mechanical stability of the studied compounds. The calculated data of bulk modulus (B), shear modulus (G), and Young's modulus (E) for Ba2SbTaO6 are found to be greater than those of Ba2SbNbO6. The ratio of Bulk to shear ratio (B/G) s…
Boron carbide (B$_4$C) has been well studied both theoretically and experimentally in its bulk form due to its exceptional hardness and use as a high temperature thermoelectric. However, the properties of its two-dimensional nanosheets are not well established. In this paper, using van der Waals corrected density-functional theory (DFT) simulations, we show that the bulk B$_4$C can be cleaved along different directions to form B$_4$C nanosheets with low formation energies. We find that there is minimal dependence of the formation energies on the cleavage planes and surface terminations. Whilst…
Motivated by a recent theoretical suggestion that doping electrons into various CaAl$_2$Si$_2$-type Zintl phase compounds may give rise to high thermoelectric performance, we explore the possibility of n-type (electron carrier) doping of CaZn$_2X_2$ ($X$ = As, P) using first principles calculation. We consider n-type doping of CaZn$_2X_2$ with the following two situations: interstitial-site doping of alkaline earth metals $AE$ (= Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba) and group 3 elements $G3$ (= Sc, Y, La), and $G3$ substitutional doping for the Ca site. The evaluation of the formation energy of these defects in va…
High-throughput calculations are a very promising tool for screening a large number of compounds in order to discover new useful materials. Ternary intermetallic are thus investigated in the present work to find new compounds potentially interesting for thermoelectric applications. The screening of the stable non-metallic compounds required for such applications is obtained by calculating their electronic structure by DFT methods. In a first part, the study of the density of states at the Fermi level of well-known chemical elements and binary compounds allows to empirically optimize the select…
Density functional theory (DFT) and DFT corrected for on-site Coulomb interactions (DFT+U) calculations are presented on Aluminium doping in bulk TiO$_2$ and the anatase (101) surface. Particular attention is paid to the mobility of oxygen vacancies throughout the doped TiO$_2$ lattice, as a means by which charge compensation of trivalent dopants can occur. The effect that Al doping of TiO$_2$ electrodes has in dye sensitised solar cells is explained as a result of this mobility and charge compensation. Substitutional defects in which one Al3+ replaces one Ti4+ are found to introduce valence b…
The angular dependence (x-ray linear dichroism) of the Cr K pre-edge in MgAl2O4:Cr3+ spinel is measured by means of x-ray absorption near edge structure spectroscopy (XANES) and compared to calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) and ligand field multiplet theory (LFM). We also present an efficient method, based on symmetry considerations, to compute the dichroism of the cubic crystal starting from the dichroism of a single substitutional site. DFT shows that the electric dipole transitions do not contribute to the features visible in the pre-edge and provides a clear vision of t…
Thermoelectric materials based on earth-abundant and non-toxic elements are very useful in cost-effective and eco-friendly waste heat management systems. The constituents of SrGaSnH are earth-abundant and non-toxic, thus we have chosen SrSnGaH to study its structural stability and thermoelectric properties by using DFT, DFPT, and semi-classical Boltzmann transport theory. Our elastic and phonons calculations show that the compound has good structural stability. The electronic structure calculation discloses that it is an indirect bandgap (0.63 eV by mBJ+SOC) semiconductor. Light band hole effe…
Calculations using density functional theory (DFT) were performed to investigate the structural, dynamical, mechanical, electronic, magnetic, and thermoelectric properties of VTiRhZ (Z = Al, Ga, In) alloys. The most stable structure of these alloys was found to be the type-I configuration. Using GGA-PBE functional, VTiRhGa, and VTiRhIn alloys are predicted as half-metallic ferromagnets with a 100% spin-polarization and a total magnetic moment of 3μB, which is promising for spintronic applications. The thermoelectric properties and lattice thermal conductivity of VTiRhZ alloys were obtained usi…
The tuning black phosphorene properties such as structural, electronic, transport are explored via substitutional C-doped. We employed density functional theory (DFT) calculations in combination with non-equilibrium Green's function (NEGF) for modeling the systems. Our results revealed that substitutional C-doped phosphorene are energetically favorable, and ruled by exothermic process. We also found that C-doping induces a change of the electric properties, such as a semiconductor-to-metal transition for the most lower concentration and zig-zag C-wire. Moreover, for an armchair C-wire and the …
Boltzmann transport calculations based on band structures generated with density functional theory (DFT) are often used in the discovery and analysis of thermoelectric materials. In standard implementations, such calculations require dense ${\it k}$-point sampling of the Brillouin zone and are therefore typically limited to the generalized gradient approximation (GGA), whereas more accurate methods such as hybrid functionals would have been preferable. GGA variants, however, generally underestimate the band gap. While premature onset of minority carriers can be avoided with scissor corrections…
