Electronic density-of-states of amorphous vanadium pentoxide films: Electrochemical data and density functional theory calculations

Thin films of V2O5 were prepared by sputter deposition onto transparent and electrically conducting substrates and were found to be X-ray amorphous. Their electrochemical density of states was determined by chronopotentiometry and displayed a pronounced low-energy peak followed by an almost featureless contribution at higher energies. These results were compared with density functional theory calculations for amorphous V2O5. Significant similarities were found between measured data and computations; specifically, the experimental low-energy peak corresponds to a split-off part of the conduction band apparent in the computations. Furthermore, the calculations approximately reproduce the experimental band gap observed in optical measurements.