Nanoscale excitonic photovoltaic mechanism in ferroelectric BiFeO3 thin films [Nanoscale excitonic mechanism underlying the bulk photovoltaic effect in ferroelectric BiFeO3 thin films]

Li, Yuelin; Adamo, Carolina; Rowland, Clare E.; Schaller, Richard D.; Schlom, Darrell G.; Walko, Donald A.

doi:10.1063/1.5030628

Title: Nanoscale excitonic photovoltaic mechanism in ferroelectric BiFeO₃ thin films [Nanoscale excitonic mechanism underlying the bulk photovoltaic effect in ferroelectric BiFeO₃ thin films]

Journal Article · Fri Jun 08 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · APL Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5030628· OSTI ID:1473616

Li, Yuelin ^[1]; Adamo, Carolina ^[2]; Rowland, Clare E. ^[3]; Schaller, Richard D. ^[1]; Schlom, Darrell G. ^[4]; Walko, Donald A. ^[1]

Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States)
Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)
Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science, Ithaca, NY (United States); Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)

We report an electrode-free photovoltaic experiment in epitaxial BiFeO₃ thin films where the picosecond optical absorption arising from carrier dynamics and piezoelectric lattice distortion due to the photovoltaic field are correlated at nanoscale. The data strongly suggest that the photovoltaic effect in phase-pure BiFeO₃ originates from diffusion of charge-neutral excitons and their subsequent dissociation localized at sample interfaces. This is in stark contrast to the belief that carrier separation is uniform within the sample due to the lack of center of symmetry in BiFeO₃. As a result, this finding is important for formulating strategies in designing practical photovoltaic ferroelectric devices.

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Research Organization:: Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: U.S. Army Research Laboratory, U.S. Army Research Office (ARO); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR). Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-06CH11357

OSTI ID:: 1473616

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1441076

Journal Information:: APL Materials, Vol. 6, Issue 8; ISSN 2166-532X

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 11 works

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Title: Nanoscale excitonic photovoltaic mechanism in ferroelectric BiFeO3 thin films [Nanoscale excitonic mechanism underlying the bulk photovoltaic effect in ferroelectric BiFeO3 thin films]

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