Band Gap Reduction in Ferroelectric BaTiO₃ Through Heterovalent Cu-Te Co-Doping for Visible-Light Photocatalysis

It is believed that ferroelectrics may serve as efficient photocatalysts as well as photovoltaic materials but for their large bandgaps which does not allow them to absorb a large part of the solar spectrum. We have explored theoretically within ab-initio density functional theory-based calculations, the efficacy of Cu and Te to co-dope BaTiO₃ in reducing its bandgap while retaining its ferroelectric properties. Examining a dopant concentration of 11%, we find an insulating ground state being realized with a band gap reduction of 0.42 eV from the value for undoped BaTiO₃ for some doping configurations. Ferroelectric distortions are found to survive even in the presence of doping suggesting possible applications in photocatalysis as well as photovoltaics.