Electronic structure of barium titanate : an abinitio DFT study

Abstract

First principle calculations were performed to study the ground state electronic properties of Barium titanate within the density functional theory (DFT). In our DFT computations, we used Vosko-Wilk-Nusair correlation energy functional and generalized gradient approximation (GGA) exchange and correlation energy functional as suggested by Perdew and Wang (PWGGA). The band structure, total density of states (DOS) and partial DOS have been systematically conducted to investigate the electronic configuration of this prototype ferroelectric perovskits compound. The band gap was 1.92 eV within our approach, and the quasi-flat band at -17 eV and -10 eV were attributed to the O 2s and Ba 5p states respectively, which was in good agreement with the corresponding total DOS and partial DOS. From the DOS investigation, it can be seen that the Ti eg state intended to interact with the oxygen octahedral orbitals to form the p-d hybridization. Moreover the strong p-d overlap and bonding can be observed in the electronic density redistribution along the different crystalline planes with respect to the corresponding space group, and the electronic isodense have been shown along the (001), (100), (110) and (111) crystal planes. From these electronic density maps, the strong bonding between Ti and O atoms can even be observed in the (111) crystalline plane.