Experimental visualization of covalent bonds and structural disorder in a gallium zinc oxynitride photocatalyst (Ga1-xZnx)(N1-xOx): origin of visible light absorption

We present the experimental visualization of covalent bonding, positional disorders and split anion sites in visible-light responsive photocatalyst (Ga0.885Zn0.115)(N0.885O0.115). ZnO alloying into GaN reduces the band gap, leading to the visible-light response. DFT calculations indicated no significant difference in band gap between structural models with and without split sites.