FP-LAPW Calculations of the EFG at Cd Impurities in Rutile SnO2

We report an ab initio study of the electric-field gradient (EFG) at Cd impurities located at the cation site in the semiconductor SnO₂(rutile phase). The study was performed with the WIEN97 implementation of the FP-LAPW method. In order to simulate the diluted Cd-impurity in the SnO₂ host and to calculate the electronic structure of the system we used a 72-atoms super-cell, studying the relaxation introduced by the impurity in the lattice. The free-relaxation process performed shows that the relaxations of the oxygen nearest-neighbors of the impurity are not isotropic. Our prediction for the EFG tensor are compared with experimental results and point-charge model predictions. This revised version was published online in September 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.