Investigation of electronic, optical and thermoelectric properties in orthorhombic perovskite SmFeO3

Abstract

In this work, we have investigated the electronic, optical, and thermoelectric properties of orthorhombic perovskite SmFeO3 using density functional and Boltzmann transport theories, for renewable energy applications. The modeling of the exact electron exchange-correlation has been carried out using both Generalized Gradient Approximation (GGA) and a functional modified with Hubbard interactions. The spin-polarized calculations show that SmFeO3 adopts a G-type antiferromagnetic configuration. The studied compound's electronic band structure and density of states analysis reveal its p-type semiconductor behavior. Furthermore, the optical properties such as real ε1(ω) and imaginary ε2(ω) components of the dielectric function as well as other conventional optical parameters, were investigated. The results show that SmFeO3 is a promising material for optoelectronic applications. The calculated transport properties including the Seebeck coefficient (S), the electrical conductivity (σ/τ), the electronic thermal conductivity (k0/τ) and the electronic figure of merit (ZTe) show significant results. The studied perovskite is also a potential candidate for thermoelectric applications, due to its high Seebeck coefficient, reaching 2388 μV/K, and the large electronic figure of merit which is close to 1 at room temperature. To improve the thermoelectric performance of SmFeO3 material, we have studied the effect of both p-type and n-type doping on its thermoelectric behavior at different temperature values.