DFT study on electronic structures and optical absorption properties of C, S cation- doped SrTiO₃

The effects of C cation and S cation doping on the electronic structures and optical properties of SrTiO₃ are investigated by density function theory (DFT) calculations. The calculated results reveal that the top of the valence band is predominately made up of the O 2p states for the pure SrTiO₃. When SrTiO₃ was doped with C cation and S cation, the top of the valence bands consists mainly of O 2p+C 2s hybrid orbitals and O 2p+S 3s hybrid orbitals, respectively. The band gap of SrTiO₃ is narrowed by the doping with C cation and S cation, especially for the C and S-codoped SrTiO₃. Moreover, the red shifts of the absorption edge are found by the calculated optical properties, which is consistent with reported experiment results. It is the explanation for their visible light respondency by the presence of C 2s and S 3s states on the upper edge of the valence band. All of these results can explain the good photocatalytic properties of C, S cation-codoped SrTiO₃ under visible light irradiation.