Optical properties of chalcopyrite-type intermediate transition metal band materials from first principles

The optical properties of a novel potential high-efficiency photovoltaic material have been studied. This material is based on a chalcopyrite-type semiconductor (CuGaS2) with some Ga atom substituted by Ti and is characterized by the formation of an isolated transition-metal band between the valence band and the conduction band. We present a study in which ab-initio density functional theory calculations within the generalized gradient approximation are carried out to determine the optical reflectivity and absorption coefficient of the materials of interest. Calculations for the host semiconductor are in good agreement with experimental results within the limitations of the approach. We find, as desired, that because of the intermediate band, the new Ti-substituted material would be able to absorb photons of energy lower than the band-gap of the host chalcopyrite. We also analyze the partial contributions to the main peaks of its spectrum. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.