Analysis of the electronic properties of intermediate band materials as a function of impurity concentration

An ab initio study using local spin density approximation to design possible candidates for intermediate band materials, which has a huge potential for becoming new devices in solar cells, is presented. The uniform doping of the GaP host semiconductor has been modelled by substituting a transition metal atom for each 216 atoms of the host semiconductor. The results show that the presence of the IB only occurs in some compounds. An analysis of the concentration effect shows that the intermediate band is preserved.