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In this work, the electronic band structure of III (In, Al, Ga) - V (N, As, Sb) compounds and their ternary alloys have been investigated by density functional theory (DFT) within generalized gradient approximation (GGA) and empirical tight binding (ETB) calculations, respectively. The present DFT-GGA calculations have shown direct band gap structures in zinc-blende phase for InN, InAs, InSb, GaN, and GaAs. However, indirect band gap structures have been obtained for cubic AlN, AlSb and AlAs com- pounds / here, the conduction band minima of both AlN and AlAs are located at X symmetry point, while that of AlSb is at a position lying along Gamma- X direction. An important part of this work consists of ETB calculations which have been parameterized for sp3d2 basis and nearest neighbor interactions to study the band gap bowing of III(In / Al)- V(N / As / Sb) ternary alloys. This ETB model provides a satisfactory electronic properties of alloys within reasonable calculation time compared to the calculations of DFT. Since the present ETB energy parameters reproduce successfully the band structures of the compounds at &iexcl / and X symme- try points, they are considered reliable for the band gap bowing calculations of the ternary alloys. In the present work, the band gap engineering of InNxAs1&iexcl / x, InNxSb1&iexcl / x, InAsxSb1&iexcl / x, Al1&iexcl / xInxN, Al1&iexcl / xInxSb and Al1&iexcl / xInxAs alloys has been studied for total range of constituents (0 &lt / x &lt / 1). The downward band gap bowing seems the largest in InNxAs1&iexcl / x alloys among the alloys considered in this work. A metallic character of InNxAs1&iexcl / x, InNxSb1&iexcl / x and InAsxSb1&iexcl / x has been ob- tained in the present calculations for certain concentration range of constituents (N / As) as predicted in the literature. Even for a small amount of contents (x), a decrease of the electronic e&reg / ective mass around &iexcl / symmetry point appears for InNxAs1-x, InNxSb1-x and InAsxSb1-x alloys manifesting itself by an increase of the band curvature. The calculated cross over from indirect to direct band gap of ternary Al alloys has been found to be consistent with the measurements. As a last summary, the determinations of the band gaps of alloys as a function of contents, the concentration range of con- stituents leading to metallic character of the alloys, the change of the electronic effective mass around the Brillioun zone center (Gamma) as a function of alloy contents, the cross over from indirect to direct band gap of the alloys which are direct on one end, indirect on the other end, are main achievements in this work, indispensable for the development of mate- rials leading to new modern circuit components.

Materials play an important role in society. Historically, and even at present, materials have been discovered by trial and error, and many of the most useful materials have been discovered by chance. The high-throughput approach aims to remove (as much as possible) chance and guesswork at the experimental level by filtering out materials candidates that are not predicted to exist. Many successes have been recorded. In the high-throughput approach to materials discovery, machined-learned models of materials are created from databases of theoretical materials. These databases are the result of millions of density-functional-theory (DFT) simulations. The size and accuracy of the data in the databases (and, consequently, the predictions of machined-learned models) are most affected by the band energy calculation; most of the computation of a DFT simulation is computing the band energy in the self-consistency cycle, and most of the error in the simulation comes from band energy error. The band energy is obtained from a two-part multidimensional numerical integral over the Brillouin or irreducible Brillouin zone. A quadratic approximation and integration algorithm for computing the band energy in 2D and 3D is described. Analytic and semi-analytic integration of quadratic polynomials over simplices improves the accuracy and efficiency of the calculation. A method is proposed for estimating the error bounds of the quadratic approximation that does not require additional eigenvalues. Error propagation of approximation errors leads to an adaptive refinement approach that is driven by band energy error. Because adaptive meshes have little symmetry, integration is performed within the irreducible Brillouin zone, and a general algorithm for computing the irreducible Brillouin zone is described. The efficiency of quadratic integration is tested on realistic empirical pseudopotentials. When compared to current integration methods, uniform quadratic integration over the irreducible Brillouin zone sometimes results in fewer k-points for a given accuracy. Adaptive refinement fails to improve integration performance because band energy error bounds are inaccurate, especially at accidental crossings at the Fermi level.

Über die besonders hohe Effizienz von Halid-Perowskit (HaP)-basierten optoelektronischen Bauteilen wurde bereits in der Literatur berichtet. Um die Entwicklung dieser Bauteile voranzutreiben, ist ein umfassendes und verlässliches Verständnis derer elektronischen Struktur, sowie der Energielevelanordnung (ELA) an HaP Grenzflächen von größter Bedeutung. Demzufolge beschäftigt sich die vorliegende Arbeit mit der Untersuchung i) der Bandstruktur von Perowskit-Einkristallen, um ein solides Fundament für die Darlegung der elektronischen Eigenschaften von polykristallinen Dünnschichten zu erarbeiten, und mit ii) den Einflüssen von Oberflächenzuständen auf die elektronische Struktur der Oberfläche, sowie deren Rolle bei der Kontrolle von ELA an HaP Grenzflächen. Die Charakterisierung erfolgt überwiegend mithilfe von Photoelektronenspektroskopie (PES) und ergänzenden Messmethoden wie Beugung niederenergetischer Elektronen an Oberflächen, UV-VIS-Spektroskopie, Rasterkraftmikroskopie und Kelvin-Sonde. Erstens weist die Banddispersion von zwei prototypischen Perowskit-Einkristallen eine starke Dispersion des jeweiligen oberen Valenzbandes (VB) auf, dessen globales Maximum in beiden Fällen am R-Punkt in der Brillouin-Zone liegt. Dabei wird eine effektive Lochmasse von 0.25 m0 für CH3NH3PbBr3, bzw. von ~0.50 m0 für CH3NH3PbI3 bestimmt. Basierend auf diesen Ergebnissen werden die elektronischen Spektren von polykristallinen Dünnschichten konstruiert und es wird dadurch aufgezeigt, dass eine Bestimmung der Valenzbandkantenposition ausgehend von einer logarithmischen Intensitätsskala aufgrund von geringer Zustandsdichte am VB Maximum vorzuziehen ist. Zweitens stellt sich bei der Untersuchung der elektronischen Struktur von frisch präparierten Perowskit-Oberflächen heraus, dass die n-Typ Eigenschaft eine Folge der Bandverbiegung ist, welche durch donatorartige Oberflächenzustände hervorgerufen wird. Des Weiteren weisen die PES-Messungen an Perowskiten mit unterschiedlichen Zusammensetzungen aufgrund von Oberflächenphotospannung eine Anregungslichtintensitätsabhängigkeit der Energieniveaus von bis zu 0.7 eV auf. Darüber hinaus wird die Kontrolle von ELA durch gezielte Variation der Oberflächenzustandsdichte gezeigt, wodurch sich unterschiedliche ELA-Lagen (mit Abweichungen von über 0.5 eV) an den Grenzflächen mit organischen Akzeptormolekülen erklären lassen. Die vorliegenden Ergebnisse verhelfen dazu, die starke Abweichung der in der Literatur berichteten Energieniveaus zu erklären und somit ein verfeinertes Verständnis des Funktionsprinzips von perowskit-basierten Bauteilen zu erlangen. / Optoelectronic devices based on halide perovskites (HaPs) and possessing remarkably high performance have been reported. To push the development of such devices even further, a comprehensive and reliable understanding of their electronic structure, including the energy level alignment (ELA) at HaPs interfaces, is essential but presently not available. In an attempt to get a deep insight into the electronic properties of HaPs and the related interfaces, the work presented in this thesis investigates i) the fundamental band structure of perovskite single crystals, in order to establish solid foundations for a better understanding the electronic properties of polycrystalline thin films and ii) the effects of surface states on the surface electronic structure and their role in controlling the ELA at HaPs interfaces. The characterization is mostly performed using photoelectron spectroscopy, together with complementary techniques including low-energy electron diffraction, UV-vis absorption spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy and Kelvin probe measurements. Firstly, the band structure of two prototypical perovskite single crystals is unraveled, featuring widely dispersing top valence bands (VB) with the global valence band maximum at R point of the Brillouin zone. The hole effective masses there are determined to be ~0.25 m0 for CH3NH3PbBr3 and ~0.50 m0 for CH3NH3PbI3. Based on these results, the energy distribution curves of polycrystalline thin films are constructed, revealing the fact that using a logarithmic intensity scale to determine the VB onset is preferable due to the low density of states at the VB maximum. Secondly, investigations on the surface electronic structure of pristine perovskite surfaces conclude that the n-type behavior is a result of surface band bending due to the presence of donor-type surface states. Furthermore, due to surface photovoltage effect, photoemission measurements on different perovskite compositions exhibit excitation-intensity dependent energy levels with a shift of up to 0.7 eV. Eventually, control over the ELA by manipulating the density of surface states is demonstrated, from which very different ELA situations (variation over 0.5 eV) at interfaces with organic electron acceptor molecules are rationalized. Our findings further help to explain the rather dissimilar reported energy levels at perovskite surfaces and interfaces, refining our understanding of the operational principles in perovskite related devices.

This master’s thesis focuses on investigating the electronic properties of the superconducting spinel compound LiTi2O4 by means of computational and experimental effort. The title compound has been extensively studied in the past years, being the only known superconducting spinel oxide with relatively high Tc = 11.5 K. Even so, the origin of its superconducting mechanism is under debate, and its anomalous superconductivity is still inquired. Thanks to the recently developed ability to produce high-quality epitaxial LiTi2O4 thin films, a renewed research interest in this compound has matured. With this work, we partake in this challenge and present combined experimental and computational results on the electronic band structure of the material. Density functional theory (DFT) has been employed for the first principle electronic structure calculations performed with the Quantum ESPRESSO software. Furthermore, thin-film samples were in-situ realized with the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method and investigated through the angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) technique conducted at the ULTRA end-station of the SLS synchrotron facility at PSI in Switzerland. Here, we report the computed electronic band structure of LiTi2O4, with a detailed investigation of its density of states and Fermi surface. Further, we compare these calculations with the obtained experimental ARPES data. Emerging from this study are results supporting the non-conventional superconducting nature of LiTi2O4, which presents coexisting correlation effects, such as electron-phonon coupling and enhanced electron-electron interactions. / Denna masteruppsats fokuserar på att undersöka de elektroniska egenskaperna hos det supraledande spinellmaterialet LiTi2O4 med hjälp av datorsimuleringar samt experimentella mätningar. LiTi2O4 har studerats omfattande under de senaste åren, eftersom den är den enda kända supraledande spinelloxiden med relativt hög Tc = 11.5 K. Trots det är ursprunget till dess supraledande mekanism debatterad, och meaknismen för dess okonventionella supraledning är fortfarande inte helt förstådd. Tack vare den nyligen utvecklade förmågan att producera tunna högkvalitativa epitaxiella LiTi2O4 filmer, har ett förnyat forskningsintresse för denna förening mognat. Med detta arbete deltar vi i denna utmaning och presenterar kombinerade experimentella och beräkningsresultat om materialets elektroniska bandstruktur. Densitetsfunktionsteori (DFT) har använts för principiella elektroniska strukturberäkningar utförda med Quantum ESPRESSO-mjukvaran. Vidare realiserades tunnfilmsprover in-situ med pulsed laser deposition (PLD) medoden och undersöktes experimentellt via vinkelupplöst fotoemissionsspektroskopi (ARPES) som utfördes vid ULTRA-ändstationen på SLS synkrotronanläggningen vid PSI i Schweiz. Här rapporterar vi den beräknade elektroniska bandstrukturen för LiTi2O4, med en detaljerad undersökning av dess tillståndstäthet och Fermi-yta. Vidare jämför vi dessa teoretiska beräkningar med de erhållna experimentella ARPES data. Resultat från denna studie stöder den icke-konventionella supraledande naturen hos LiTi2O4, som också uppvisare samexisterande korrelationseffekter, såsom elektron-fononkoppling samt starka elektron-elektron-interaktioner.

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