Fe and Rh Doping Nanoarchitectonics on Properties of Sr₂YGaX₂O₇ Pyrochlore Oxides with a DFT-Based Spin-Polarized Calculation for Optoelectronic and Thermoelectric Applications

This study examined the potential consequences of doping on Sr₂YGaX₂O₇(X = Fe, Rh) photovoltaic properties. Density functional theory (DFT) was used to calculate pyrochlore oxides’ energy band structure and optical characteristics using the full potential linearized augmented plane wave (FP-LAPW) method. The generalized gradient approximation (GGA + U) was utilized to treat the exchange and correlation potential. We studied the metallic atoms Fe, Rh, Y, and Ga orbital electronic states. The utilization of the complex dielectric function facilitated the computation of various optical properties such as the energy band dispersion statistics, absorption coefficient, reflectivity, energy loss function, refractive index, extinction coefficient, and real optical conductivity parameters. We employed Boltzmann transport theory to delve deeper into the electrical transport characteristics (specifically thermoelectric properties) of Fe and Rh-doped pyrochlore oxides in the temperature range of 0–800 K. It is observed that the Sr₂YGaRh₂O₇ compound indicated higher values of ZT 0.9, 1.25 for 50 K and 800 K, respectively. Further, both the compounds exhibit p-type nature as their seebeck coefficient shows a positive region between 50 and 800 K. The materials with strong thermoelectric properties are assumed in high reflectivity zone and potentially effective in solar heating.