Enhancement of the density of states at the Fermi level due to oxygen atoms in noble metals

Abstract

The interaction of oxygen with noble metals such as silver has been an important topic of research for many decades. Here, we show occurrence of a peak in the density of states (DOS) at the Fermi level (EF) when oxygen atoms occupy disordered substitutional positions in noble metals such as Ag, Au or Ag-Au alloy. This results in large enhancement of DOS at EF with respect to Ag or Au metal. Its origin is attributed to O 2p related disorder broadened flat band that straddles almost all the high symmetry directions of the Brillouin zone. Our work suggests that if a large concentration of disordered oxygen can be realized in nano-structures of noble metals, it may lead to interesting phenomenon.