Polarized Raman, infrared and dielectric spectra of lead-free K0.5Na0.5NbO3 piezoelectric system: insights from ab-initio theoretical and experimental studies

Abstract

The K0.5Na0.5NbO3 (KNN) system has emerged as one of the most promising lead-free piezoelectric over the years. In this work, we perform a comprehensive investigation of electronic structure, lattice dynamics and dielectric properties of room temperature phase of KNN by combining ab-initio DFT based theoretical analysis and experimental characterization. We assign the symmetry labels to KNN vibrational modes and obtain ab-initio polarized Raman spectra, Infrared reflectivity, Born-effective charge tensors, oscillator strengths etc. The KNN ceramic samples are prepared using conventional solid-state method and Raman and UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectra are obtained. The computed Raman spectrum is found to agree well with the experimental spectrum. In particular, the results suggest that the mode in range ∼840–870 cm−1 reported in the experimental studies is longitudinal optical with A1 symmetry. The Raman mode intensities are calculated for different light polarization set-ups that suggests the observation of different symmetry modes in different polarization set-ups. The electronic structure of KNN is investigated and optical absorption spectrum is obtained. Further, the performances of DFT semi-local, meta-GGA and hybrid exchange-correlations functionals, in the estimation of KNN band gaps are investigated. The KNN bandgap computed using GGA-1/2 and HSE06 hybrid functional schemes are found to be in excellent agreement with the experimental value. The COHP, electron localization function and Bader charge analysis is also performed to deduce the nature of chemical bonding in the KNN. Overall, our study provides several bench-mark important results on KNN that have not been reported so far.