Ab Initio Study of Electronic Excitation Effects on SrTiO₃

Interaction of energetic ions or lasers with solids often induces electronic excitations that may modify material properties significantly. In this study, effects of electronic excitations on strontium titanate SrTiO₃ (STO) are investigated based on first-principles calculations. The lattice structure, electronic properties, lattice vibrational frequencies, and dynamical stabilities are studied in detail. The results suggest that electronic excitation induces charge redistribution that is mainly observed in Ti-O bonds. The electronic band gap increases with increasing electronic excitation, as excitation mainly induces depopulation of Ti 3d states. Phonon analysis indicates that there is a large phonon band gap induced by electronic excitation because of the changes in the vibrational properties of Ti and O atoms. In addition, a new peak appears in the phonon density of states with imaginary frequencies, an indication of lattice instability. Further dynamics simulations confirm that STO undergoes transition to an amorphous structure under strong electronic excitations. The optical properties of STO under electronic excitation are consistent with the evolution of atomic and electronic structures, which suggests a possibility to probe the properties of STO in nonequilibrium state using optical measurement.