Mechanisms governing metal vacancy formation in BaTiO3 and SrTiO3

Abstract

Barium titanate (BTO) and strontium titanate (STO) are often treated as close analogues, and models of defect behavior are freely transferred from one material to the other with only minor modifications. On the other hand, it is often reported that B-site vacancies (vB) are the dominant metal vacancy in BTO, while A-site vacancies (vA) dominate in STO. This difference precludes the use of analogous defect models for BTO and STO, begging the question: how similar are the defect chemistries of the two materials? Here, we address this question with density functional theory calculations using a state-of-the-art hybrid exchange correlation functional, which more accurately describes the electronic structure and charge localization than traditional functionals. We find that vA is the dominant metal vacancy in STO but that different combinations of vA, vB, and vB-vO complexes are present in BTO depending on processing and doping. Mechanistically, this occurs for two reasons: thermodynamic differences in the accessible processing conditions of the two materials and energy differences in the bonds broken when forming the vacancies. These differences can also lead to widely differing responses when impurity dopants are intentionally added. Therefore, the response of metal vacancy behavior in BTO and STO to the inclusion of niobium and iron, two typical dopants in these systems, is examined and compared.