Oxygen vacancy in N-doped Cu₂O crystals: A density functional theory study

The N-doping effects on the electronic properties of Cu₂O crystals are investigated using density functional theory. The calculated results show that N-doped Cu₂O with or without oxygen vacancy exhibits different modifications of electronic band structure. In N anion-doped Cu₂O, some N 2p states overlap and mix with the O 2p valence band, leading to a slight narrowing of band gap compared with the undoped Cu₂O. However, it is found that the coexistence of both N impurity and oxygen vacancy contributes to band gap widening which may account for the experimentally observed optical band gap widening by N doping.