Electronic structure of BaSnO₃ investigated by high-energy-resolution electron energy-loss spectroscopy and ab initio calculations

There has been growing interest in perovskite BaSnO₃ due to its desirable properties for oxide electronic devices, including high electron mobility at room temperature and optical transparency. As these electronic and optical properties originate largely from the electronic structure of the material, here the basic electronic structure of epitaxially grown BaSnO₃ films is studied using high-energy-resolution electron energy-loss spectroscopy in a transmission electron microscope and ab initio calculations. This study provides a detailed description of the dielectric function of BaSnO₃, including the energies of bulk plasmon excitations and critical interband electronic transitions, the band structure and partial densities of states, the measured band gap, and more.