Comparative first-principles analysis of the absorption spectra of ZnAl₂S₄ and ZnGa₂O₄ crystals doped with Cr³⁺

Systematic first-principles analysis of the energy level schemes and ground state absorption spectra of trivalent chromium in ZnAl₂S₄ and ZnGa₂O₄ crystals has been performed in the present paper. The recently developed first-principles approach to the analysis of the absorption spectra of impurity ions in crystals based on the discrete variational multi-electron (DV-ME) method [K. Ogasawara et al., Phys. Rev. B 64, 115413 (2001)] was used in the calculations. The method is based on the numerical solution of the Dirac equation; no phenomenological parameters are used in the calculations. As a result, complete energy level schemes of the Cr³⁺ ion and its absorption spectra in both crystals were calculated, assigned and compared with experimental data. By performing analysis of the molecular orbital (MO) population, it was shown that the covalency of the chemical bonds between the Cr³⁺ and S^2- ions is more significant than that one between the Cr³⁺ and O^2- ions.