Thermodynamic and electronic properties of rutile Sn$_{1-x}$Ge$_x$O$_2$ alloys from first principles

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Müller, Yann L., Kurbay, Alp Umut, Zhang, Xiao, Kioupakis, Emmanouil, Natarajan, Anirudh Raju
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866909993451651072
author Müller, Yann L.
Kurbay, Alp Umut
Zhang, Xiao
Kioupakis, Emmanouil
Natarajan, Anirudh Raju
author_facet Müller, Yann L.
Kurbay, Alp Umut
Zhang, Xiao
Kioupakis, Emmanouil
Natarajan, Anirudh Raju
contents Rutile Sn$_{1-x}$Ge$_x$O$_{2}$ alloys are promising materials for high-power electronic applications due to their dopability and tunable ultra-wide band gaps. We use first-principles density functional theory and statistical mechanics to investigate the crystallographic, electronic, and thermodynamic properties of rutile $\text{Sn}_{1-x}\text{Ge}_x\text{O}_2$ alloys. We predict that the lattice parameters follow Vegard's law, while band gaps calculated with the hybrid HSE06 functional exhibit strong bowing, consistent with experiment. We also predict that the disordered phase has a large positive mixing enthalpy and a slight tendency for Ge-Sn clustering, indicated by weakly negative short-range order parameters. This large positive mixing enthalpy produces a miscibility gap with a critical temperature above 2300 K, implying that the high Ge and Sn solubilities observed in thin-film synthesis cannot be explained by the incoherent phase diagram alone. We demonstrate that coherency strain during epitaxial growth substantially alters phase stability. Calculations of the coherent spinodal show significant suppression of the miscibility gap, reducing the critical temperature to $\approx 900$ K. These coherent phase boundaries account for the experimentally observed high solubilities at typical growth temperatures. Our results indicate that coherency strain stabilizes these metastable alloys and enables bandgap engineering in this ultrawide-bandgap material system.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_12184
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Thermodynamic and electronic properties of rutile Sn$_{1-x}$Ge$_x$O$_2$ alloys from first principles
Müller, Yann L.
Kurbay, Alp Umut
Zhang, Xiao
Kioupakis, Emmanouil
Natarajan, Anirudh Raju
Materials Science
Rutile Sn$_{1-x}$Ge$_x$O$_{2}$ alloys are promising materials for high-power electronic applications due to their dopability and tunable ultra-wide band gaps. We use first-principles density functional theory and statistical mechanics to investigate the crystallographic, electronic, and thermodynamic properties of rutile $\text{Sn}_{1-x}\text{Ge}_x\text{O}_2$ alloys. We predict that the lattice parameters follow Vegard's law, while band gaps calculated with the hybrid HSE06 functional exhibit strong bowing, consistent with experiment. We also predict that the disordered phase has a large positive mixing enthalpy and a slight tendency for Ge-Sn clustering, indicated by weakly negative short-range order parameters. This large positive mixing enthalpy produces a miscibility gap with a critical temperature above 2300 K, implying that the high Ge and Sn solubilities observed in thin-film synthesis cannot be explained by the incoherent phase diagram alone. We demonstrate that coherency strain during epitaxial growth substantially alters phase stability. Calculations of the coherent spinodal show significant suppression of the miscibility gap, reducing the critical temperature to $\approx 900$ K. These coherent phase boundaries account for the experimentally observed high solubilities at typical growth temperatures. Our results indicate that coherency strain stabilizes these metastable alloys and enables bandgap engineering in this ultrawide-bandgap material system.
title Thermodynamic and electronic properties of rutile Sn$_{1-x}$Ge$_x$O$_2$ alloys from first principles
topic Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.12184