LAUSR

Hydrogen contamination of strontium titanate (STO) during processing and usage is a known problem. However, it is relatively little-studied due to the difficulty in quantifying the amount of hydrogen that dissolves in the lattice. Here, we use hybrid exchange-correlation density functional theory calculations as input to a grand canonical thermodynamics framework to estimate hydrogen solubility and site preferences in donor-doped STO. Our results provide clear theoretical evidence that hydrogen contamination in donor-doped STO occurs at a low enough level to essentially ignore. But, this simple conclusion belies hydrogen's rich behavior; unlike many dopants, it is able to easily change its incorporation site in response to changes in processing conditions. Overall, the findings are consistent with prevailing wisdom and suggest that the presented first principles approach could be used for systematic exploration of hydrogen's impact as a function of doping and processing in this and other wide bandgap materials.Hydrogen contamination of strontium titanate (STO) during processing and usage is a known problem. However, it is relatively little-studied due to the difficulty in quantifying the amount of hydrogen that dissolves in the lattice. Here, we use hybrid exchange-correlation density functional theory calculations as input to a grand canonical thermodynamics framework to estimate hydrogen solubility and site preferences in donor-doped STO. Our results provide clear theoretical evidence that hydrogen contamination in donor-doped STO occurs at a low enough level to essentially ignore. But, this simple conclusion belies hydrogen's rich behavior; unlike many dopants, it is able to easily change its incorporation site in response to changes in processing conditions. Overall, the findings are consistent with prevailing wisdom and suggest that the presented first principles approach could be used for systematic exploration of hydrogen's impact as a function of doping and processing in this and other wide bandgap mate...