First-Principles Simulation of Substitutional Defects in Perovskites

The results of supercell calculations of electronic structure and related properties of substitutional impurities in perovskite oxides KNbO3 and KTaO3 are discussed. For Fe impurities in KNbO3, the results obtained in the local density approximation (LDA) and in the LDA+U approach (that allows an ad hoc treatment of nonlocality in exchange-correlation) are compared, and different impurity charge configurations are discussed. The study of off-centre Li defects in incipient ferroelectric KTaO3 have been done by the appropriately parametrized Intermediate Neglect of Differential Overlap (INDO) method. The interaction energies of two off-centre impurities in different relative configurations are discussed.