Theoretical and experimental investigation of defect formation / migration in Gd2Ti2O7: General rule of oxide-ion migration in A2B2O7 pyrochlore

We investigated the intrinsic defect formation energy and oxide-ion migration mechanism in Gd2Ti2O7 pyrochlore. It was found that the vacancy formation energy of Gd is lower than that of Ti. For the oxygen vacancy, O(48f) was found to show lower vacancy formation energy than O(8b). The formation energy of the vacancy complex showed that the Gd vacancy is accompanied with the O(48f) vacancy, which is consistent with our experiment. The migration energy of O(48f) along the <100> direction, which is dominant migration path for ionic conduction, was calculated to be 0.43 eV. On the other hand, we found that Gd vacancy increases O(48f) migration energy. For example, the migration energy of O(48f) along the <100> direction was increased to be 1.36 eV by the local compressive strain around Gd vacancy. This finding could explain our previous experimental result of decreasing conductivity with increasing Gd deficiency. Along with the oxide-ion migration mechanism in Gd2Ti2O7, O(48f) migration energies along both <100> and <110> directions for various A2B2O7 pyrochlore structures were investigated. As a general trend of oxide-ion migration in the pyrochlore structure, we propose that O(48f) migration along the <100> direction is governed by the strength of B–O bonding. On the other hand, the ratio of ionic radius B/A is proposed to determine O(48f) migration along the <110> direction in A2B2O7 pyrochlore.