Electronic structure calculations of an oxygen vacancy inKH2PO4

Abstract

We present first-principles total-energy density-functional theory electronic structure calculations for the neutral and charge states of an oxygen vacancy in KH{sub 2}PO{sub 4} (KDP). Even though the overall DOS profiles for the defective KDP are quite similar to those of the perfect KDP, the oxygen vacancy in the neutral and +1 charge states induces defect states in the band gap. For the neutral oxygen vacancy, the gap states are occupied by two electrons. The difference between the integral of the total density of states (DOS) and the sum of the DOS projected on the atoms of 0.98 |e|, indicates that one of the two electrons resulting from the removal of the oxygen atom is trapped in the vacancy, while the other tends to delocalize in the neighboring atoms. For the +1 charge oxygen vacancy, the addition of the hole reduces the occupation of the filled gap-states in the neutral case from two to one electron and produces new empty states in the gap. The new empty gap states are very close to the highest occupied states, leading to a dramatic decrease of the band gap. The difference between the integral of the total DOS and the sum of the DOS projected on the atoms is 0.56 |e|, which implies that more than 56% of the redundant electron is trapped in the oxygen vacancy, and 44% spreads over the neighboring atoms. In sharp contrast, no defect states appear in the energy gap for the +2 charge O vacancy. Thus, the addition of the two holes completely compensates the two redundant electrons, and removes in turn the occupied gap states in the neutral case.