Effect of polaron formation on electronic, charge and magnetic properties of Nb12O29

Abstract

We present the ab initio study of different phases of Nb12O29, which has been done in the framework of density functional theory using the onsite Hubbard-U correction applied to the Nb-d states. We vary the U parameter in between 0 and 7 eV and suggest U = 3.7 – 5.0 eV to be most appropriate for the description of Nb12O29. We show that one cannot get any adequate description of this oxide using the crystallographic unit cell but at least 3 times larger supercell is needed increased along the shortest lattice parameter b to accommodate lattice distortions associated with polaron formation. Our results obtained for the enlarged cells show the possibility of simultaneous co-existence of localized states (polaron formation) and delocalized states providing metal-like properties of Nb12O29, in qualitative agreement with available experimental data.