English

Electronic Structure of the Bond Disproportionated Bismuthate Ag$_2$BiO$_3$

Materials Science 2021-08-16 v1

Abstract

We present a comprehensive study on the silver bismuthate Ag2_2BiO3_3, synthesized under high-pressure high-temperature conditions, which has been the subject of recent theoretical work on topologically complex electronic states. We present X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results showing two different bismuth states, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy results on the oxygen KK-edge showing holes in the oxygen bands. These results support a bond disproportionated state with holes on the oxygen atoms for Ag2_2BiO3_3. We estimate a band gap of \sim1.25~eV for Ag2_2BiO3_3 from optical conductivity measurements, which matches the band gap in density functional calculations of the electronic band structure in the non-symmorphic space group Pnn2Pnn2, which supports two inequivalent Bi sites. In our band structure calculations the disproportionated Ag2_2BiO3_3 is expected to host Weyl nodal chains, one of which is located \sim0.5~eV below the Fermi level. Furthermore, we highlight similarities between Ag2_2BiO3_3 and the well-known disproportionated bismuthate BaBiO3_3, including breathing phonon modes with similar energy. In both compounds hybridization of Bi-6s6s and O-2p2p atomic orbitals is important in shaping the band structure, but in contrast to the Ba-5p5p in BaBiO3_3, the Ag-4d4d bands in Ag2_2BiO3_3 extend up to the Fermi level.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2106.09075,
  title  = {Electronic Structure of the Bond Disproportionated Bismuthate Ag$_2$BiO$_3$},
  author = {Mohamed Oudah and Minu Kim and Ksenia S. Rabinovich and Kateryna Foyevtsova and Graham McNally and Berkay Kilic and Kathrin Küster and Robert Green and Alexander V. Boris and George Sawatzky and Andreas P. Schnyder and D. A. Bonn and Bernhard Keimer and Hidenori Takagi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2106.09075},
  year   = {2021}
}