<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Polarons influence decisively the performance of lithium niobate for optical applications. In this work, the formation of (defect) bound polarons in lithium niobate is studied by ab initio molecular dynamics. The calculations show a broad scatter of polaron formation times. Rising temperature increases the share of trajectories with long formation times, which leads to an overall increase of the average formation time with temperature. However, even at elevated temperatures, the average formation time does not exceed the value of 100 femtoseconds, i.e., a value close to the time measured for free, i.e., self-trapped polarons. Analyzing individual trajectories, it is found that the time required for the structural relaxation of the polarons depends sensitively on the excitation of the lithium niobate high-frequency phonon modes and their phase relation.</jats:p>

Many-body perturbation theory based on density-functional theory calculations is used to determine the quasiparticle band structures and the dielectric functions of the isomorphic ferroelectrics rubidium titanyl phosphate (RbTiOPO4) and potassium titanyl arsenide (KTiOAsO4). Self-energy corrections of more than 2 eV are found to widen the transport band gaps of both materials considerably to 5.3 and 5.2 eV, respectively. At the same time, both materials are characterized by strong exciton binding energies of 1.4 and 1.5 eV, respectively. The solution of the Bethe-Salpeter equation based on the quasiparticle energies results in onsets of the optical absorption within the range of the measured data.

Hole polarons and defect-bound exciton polarons in lithium niobate are investigated by means of density-functional theory, where the localization of the holes is achieved by applying the +U approach to the oxygen 2p orbitals. We find three principal configurations of hole polarons: (i) self-trapped holes localized at displaced regular oxygen atoms and (ii) two other configurations bound to a lithium vacancy either at a threefold coordinated oxygen atom above or at a twofold coordinated oxygen atom below the defect. The latter is most stable and in excellent quantitative agreement with measured g factors from electron paramagnetic resonance. Due to the absence of mid-gap states, none of these hole polarons can explain the broad optical absorption centered between 2.5 and 2.8 eV that is observed in transient absorption spectroscopy, but such states appear if a free electron polaron is trapped at the same lithium vacancy as the bound hole polaron, resulting in an exciton polaron. The dielectric function calculated by solving the Bethe-Salpeter equation indeed yields an optical peak at 2.6 eV in agreement with the two-photon experiments. The coexistence of hole and exciton polarons, which are simultaneously created in optical excitations, thus satisfactorily explains the reported experimental data.

We study the DC conductivity in potassium titanyl phosphate (KTiOPO4, KTP) and its isomorphs KTiOAsO4 (KTA) and Rb1%K99%TiOPO4 (RKTP) and introduce a method by which to reduce the overall ionic conductivity in KTP by a potassium nitrate treatment. Furthermore, we create so-called gray tracking in KTP and investigate the ionic conductivity in theses areas. A local unintended reduction of the ionic conductivity is observed in the gray-tracked regions, which also induce additional optical absorption in the material. We show that a thermal treatment in an oxygen-rich atmosphere removes the gray tracking and brings the ionic conductivity as well as the optical transmission back to the original level. These studies can help to choose the best material and treatment for specific applications.

Lithium niobate (LiNbO3), a material frequently used in optical applications, hosts different kinds of polarons that significantly affect many of its physical properties. In this study, a variety of electron polarons, namely free, bound, and bipolarons, are analyzed using first-principles calculations. We perform a full structural optimization based on density-functional theory for selected intrinsic defects with special attention to the role of symmetry-breaking distortions that lower the total energy. The cations hosting the various polarons relax to a different degree, with a larger relaxation corresponding to a larger gap between the defect level and the conduction-band edge. The projected density of states reveals that the polaron states are formerly empty Nb 4d states lowered into the band gap. Optical absorption spectra are derived within the independent-particle approximation, corrected by the GW approximation that yields a wider band gap and by including excitonic effects within the Bethe-Salpeter equation. Comparing the calculated spectra with the density of states, we find that the defect peak observed in the optical absorption stems from transitions between the defect level and a continuum of empty Nb 4d states. Signatures of polarons are further analyzed in the reflectivity and other experimentally measurable optical coefficients.

Density-functional theory within a Berry-phase formulation of the dynamical polarization is used to determine the second-order susceptibility χ(2) of lithium niobate (LiNbO3). Defect trapped polarons and bipolarons are found to strongly enhance the nonlinear susceptibility of the material, in particular if localized at NbV–VLi defect pairs. This is essentially a consequence of the polaronic excitation resulting in relaxation-induced gap states. The occupation of these levels leads to strongly enhanced χ(2) coefficients and allows for the spatial and transient modification of the second-harmonic generation of macroscopic samples.

<p>EPR spectroscopy reveals the universality class and dynamic effects of the [NH₄][Zn(HCOO)₃] hybrid formate framework.</p>

<p>A hole transfer from an excited Ru unit towards graphene oxide significantly improved the photocatalytic activity of the complexes.</p>

Polarons in dielectric crystals play a crucial role for applications in integrated electronics and optoelectronics. In this work, we use density-functional theory and Green's function methods to explore the microscopic structure and spectroscopic signatures of electron polarons in lithium niobate (LiNbO3). Total-energy calculations and the comparison of calculated electron paramagnetic resonance data with available measurements reveal the formation of bound polarons at Nb_Li antisite defects with a quasi-Jahn-Teller distorted, tilted configuration. The defect-formation energies further indicate that (bi)polarons may form not only at Nb_Li antisites but also at structures where the antisite Nb atom moves into a neighboring empty oxygen octahedron. Based on these structure models, and on the calculated charge-transition levels and potential-energy barriers, we propose two mechanisms for the optical and thermal splitting of bipolarons, which provide a natural explanation for the reported two-path recombination of bipolarons. Optical-response calculations based on the Bethe-Salpeter equation, in combination with available experimental data and new measurements of the optical absorption spectrum, further corroborate the geometries proposed here for free and defect-bound (bi)polarons.

The cubic, tetragonal, and orthorhombic phase of potassium niobate (KNbO3) are studied based on density-functional theory. Starting from the relaxed atomic geometries, we analyze the influence of self-energy corrections on the electronic band structure within the GW approximation. We find that quasiparticle shifts widen the direct (indirect) band gap by 1.21 (1.44), 1.58 (1.55), and 1.67 (1.64) eV for the cubic, tetragonal, and orthorhombic phase, respectively. By solving the Bethe-Salpeter equation, we obtain the linear dielectric function with excitonic and local-field effects, which turn out to be essential for good agreement with experimental data. From our results, we extract an exciton binding energy of 0.6, 0.5, and 0.5 eV for the cubic, tetragonal, and orthorhombic phase, respectively. Furthermore, we investigate the nonlinear second-harmonic generation (SHG) both theoretically and experimentally. The frequency-dependent second-order polarization tensor of orthorhombic KNbO3 is measured for incoming photon energies between 1.2 and 1.6 eV. In addition, calculations within the independent-(quasi)particle approximation are performed for the tetragonal and orthorhombic phase. The novel experimental data are in excellent agreement with the quasiparticle calculations and resolve persistent discrepancies between earlier experimental measurements and ab initio results reported in the literature.

The KTiOPO4 (KTP) band structure and dielectric function are calculated on various levels of theory starting from density-functional calculations. Within the independent-particle approximation an electronic transport gap of 2.97 eV is obtained that widens to about 5.23 eV when quasiparticle effects are included using the GW approximation. The optical response is shown to be strongly anisotropic due to (i) the slight asymmetry of the TiO6 octahedra in the (001) plane and (ii) their anisotropic distribution along the [001] and [100] directions. In addition, excitonic effects are very important: The solution of the Bethe–Salpeter equation indicates exciton binding energies of the order of 1.5 eV. Calculations that include both quasiparticle and excitonic effects are in good agreement with the measured reflectivity.

<p>A study of structural evolution upon photoinduced charge transfer in a dicopper complex with biologically relevant sulfur coordination.</p>

<jats:p>Ultrafast nonequilibrium dynamics offer a route to study the microscopic interactions that govern macroscopic behavior. In particular, photoinduced phase transitions (PIPTs) in solids provide a test case for how forces, and the resulting atomic motion along a reaction coordinate, originate from a nonequilibrium population of excited electronic states. Using femtosecond photoemission, we obtain access to the transient electronic structure during an ultrafast PIPT in a model system: indium nanowires on a silicon(111) surface. We uncover a detailed reaction pathway, allowing a direct comparison with the dynamics predicted by ab initio simulations. This further reveals the crucial role played by localized photoholes in shaping the potential energy landscape and enables a combined momentum- and real-space description of PIPTs, including the ultrafast formation of chemical bonds.</jats:p>

The electronic band structures of hexagonal ZnO and cubic ZnS, ZnSe, and ZnTe compounds are determined within hybrid-density-functional theory and quasiparticle calculations. It is found that the band-edge energies calculated on the G0W0 (Zn chalcogenides) or GW (ZnO) level of theory agree well with experiment, while fully self-consistent QSGW calculations are required for the correct description of the Zn 3d bands. The quasiparticle band structures are used to calculate the linear response and second-harmonic-generation (SHG) spectra of the Zn–VI compounds. Excitonic effects in the optical absorption are accounted for within the Bethe–Salpeter approach. The calculated spectra are discussed in the context of previous experimental data and present SHG measurements for ZnO.

The optical properties of congruent lithium niobate are analyzed from first principles. The dielectric function of the material is calculated within time-dependent density-functional theory. The effects of isolated intrinsic defects and defect pairs, including the NbLi4+ antisite and the NbLi4+−NbNb4+ pair, commonly addressed as a bound polaron and bipolaron, respectively, are discussed in detail. In addition, we present further possible realizations of polaronic and bipolaronic systems. The absorption feature around 1.64 eV, ascribed to small bound polarons [O. F. Schirmer et al., J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 21, 123201 (2009)], is nicely reproduced within these models. Among the investigated defects, we find that the presence of bipolarons at bound interstitial-vacancy pairs NbV−VLi can best explain the experimentally observed broad absorption band at 2.5 eV. Our results provide a microscopic model for the observed optical spectra and suggest that, besides NbLi antisites and Nb and Li vacancies, Nb interstitials are also formed in congruent lithium-niobate samples.

The optical properties of pristine and titanium-doped LiNbO3 are modeled from first principles. The dielectric functions are calculated within time-dependent density-functional theory, and a model long-range contribution is employed for the exchange-correlation kernel in order to account for the electron-hole binding. Our study focuses on the influence of substitutional titanium atoms on lithium sites. We show that an increasing titanium concentration enhances the values of the refractive indices and the reflectivity.

We perform a comprehensive theoretical study of the structural and electronic properties of potassium niobate (KNbO3) in the cubic, tetragonal, orthorhombic, monoclinic, and rhombohedral phase, based on density-functional theory. The influence of different parametrizations of the exchange-correlation functional on the investigated properties is analyzed in detail, and the results are compared to available experimental data. We argue that the PBEsol and AM05 generalized gradient approximations as well as the RTPSS meta-generalized gradient approximation yield consistently accurate structural data for both the external and internal degrees of freedom and are overall superior to the local-density approximation or other conventional generalized gradient approximations for the structural characterization of KNbO3. Band-structure calculations using a HSE-type hybrid functional further indicate significant near degeneracies of band-edge states in all phases which are expected to be relevant for the optical response of the material.

The influence of electronic many-body interactions, spin-orbit coupling, and thermal lattice vibrations on the electronic structure of lithium niobate is calculated from first principles. Self-energy calculations in the GW approximation show that the inclusion of self-consistency in the Green function G and the screened Coulomb potential W opens the band gap far stronger than found in previous G0W0 calculations but slightly overestimates its actual value due to the neglect of excitonic effects in W. A realistic frozen-lattice band gap of about 5.9 eV is obtained by combining hybrid density functional theory with the QSGW0 scheme. The renormalization of the band gap due to electron-phonon coupling, derived here using molecular dynamics as well as density functional perturbation theory, reduces this value by about 0.5 eV at room temperature. Spin-orbit coupling does not noticeably modify the fundamental gap but gives rise to a Rashba-like spin texture in the conduction band.

The phonon dispersions of the ferro‐ and paraelectric phase of LiTaO3 are calculated within density‐functional perturbation theory. The longitudinal optical phonon modes are theoretically derived and compared with available experimental data. Our results confirm the recent phonon assignment proposed by Margueron et al. [J. Appl. Phys. 111, 104105 (2012)] on the basis of spectroscopical studies. A comparison with the phonon band structure of the related material LiNbO3 shows minor differences that can be traced to the atomic‐mass difference between Ta and Nb. The presence of phonons with imaginary frequencies for the paraelectric phase suggests that it does not correspond to a minimum energy structure, and is compatible with an order‐disorder type phase transition.

<p>We report a combined experiment-theory study on low energy vibrational modes in fluorescence spectra of perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic acid dianhydride (PTCDA) molecules.</p>

The vibrational properties of stoichiometric LiNbO3 are analyzed within density-functional perturbation theory in order to obtain the complete phonon dispersion of the material. The phonon density of states of the ferroelectric (paraelectric) phase shows two (one) distinct band gaps separating the high-frequency (~800 cm−1) optical branches from the continuum of acoustic and lower optical phonon states. This result leads to specific heat capacites in close agreement with experimental measurements in the range 0–350 K and a Debye temperature of 574 K. The calculated zero-point renormalization of the electronic Kohn–Sham eigenvalues reveals a strong dependence on the phonon wave vectors, especially near Γ. Integrated over all phonon modes, our results indicate a vibrational correction of the electronic band gap of 0.41 eV at 0 K, which is in excellent agreement with the extrapolated temperature-dependent measurements.