Valence and Spin fluctuations in Mn-doped ferroelectric BaTiO3

TL;DR

This study investigates how manganese doping affects the electronic charge and spin states in BaTiO3, revealing that charge and spin fluctuations are crucial for understanding the material's ground state, especially with oxygen vacancies.

Contribution

It demonstrates the importance of including charge and spin fluctuations in theoretical models to accurately describe transition metal doped ferroelectrics.

Findings

Charge and spin fluctuations are significant in Mn-doped BaTiO3.

Oxygen vacancies reduce fluctuations and stabilize the high spin 3d5 state.

Accurate ground state modeling requires accounting for these fluctuations.

Abstract

We study Mn substitution for Ti in BaTiO3 with and without compensating oxygen vacancies using density functional theory (DFT) in combination with dynamical mean field theory (DMFT). We find strong charge and spin fluctuations. Without compensating oxygen vacancies, the ground state is found to be a quantum superposition of two distinct atomic valences, 3d4 and 3d5. Introducing a compensating oxygen vacancy at a neighboring site reduces both charge and spin fluctuations due to the reduction of electron hopping from Mn to its ligands. As a consequence, valence fluctuations are reduced, and is closely fixed to the high spin 3d5 state. Here we show that inclusion of charge and spin fluctuations is necessary to obtain an accurate ground state of transition metal doped ferroelectrics.