John Petersen

Electronic and optical properties of antiferromagnetic iron doped NiO – A first principles study

Antiferromagnetic NiO is a candidate for next generation high-speed and scaled RRAM devices. Here, electronic and optical properties of antiferromagnetic NiO: Fe 25% in the rock salt structure are studied and compared to intrinsic NiO. From density of states and complex dielectric function analysis, the first optical transition is found to be at lower frequency than intrinsic NiO due to an Fe impurity level being the valence band maximum. The resulting effects on refractive index, reflectivity, absorption, optical conductivity and loss function for Fe-doped NiO are compared to those of intrinsic NiO, and notable differences are analyzed. The electronic component of the static dielectric constant of NiO: Fe 25% is calculated to be about 2% less than that of intrinsic NiO.

Ab initio Results for the Structural and Electronic Properties of Intrinsic Defects in PbTe

In this work, we have performed spin-polarized calculations for the structural and electronic properties of vacancies and anti-site defects in the rocksalt PbTe. Our obtained results have shown that both the Pb and Te antisites are the favorable defects in Pb and Te rich conditions, respectively. Moreover, in the perfect stoichiometry condition, the antisites, as well as the Te vacancy, are equally probable to find. Considering the charge injection in the system, all the defects change from the 2+ charge state to the 2one within 14 meV, at around 80 meV from the valence band edge within the bandgap. This feature makes it difficult to experimentally characterize these defects in PbTe.