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Title: Dynamic defect correlations dominate activated electronic transport in SrTiO3

Abstract

Strontium titanate (SrTiO3, STO) is a critically important material for the study of emergent electronic phases in complex oxides, as well as for the development of applications based on their heterostructures. Despite the large body of knowledge on STO, there are still many uncertainties regarding the role of defects in the properties of STO, including their influence on ferroelectricity in bulk STO and ferromagnetism in STO-based heterostructures. In this paper, we present a detailed analysis of the decay of persistent photoconductivity in STO single crystals with defect concentrations that are relatively low but significantly affect their electronic properties. The results show that photo-activated electron transport cannot be described by a superposition of the properties due to independent point defects as current models suggest but is, instead, governed by defect complexes that interact through dynamic correlations. In conclusion, these results emphasize the importance of defect correlations for activated electronic transport properties of semiconducting and insulating perovskite oxides.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [4];  [4];  [4]
  1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
  2. Lamar University, Beaumont, TX (United States)
  3. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
  4. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1271865
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC05-00OR22725
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Scientific Reports
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 6; Journal ID: ISSN 2045-2322
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; Electronic properties and materials; Semiconductors

Citation Formats

Snijders, Paul C., Sen, Cengiz, McConnell, Michael P., Ma, Ying-Zhong, May, Andrew F., Herklotz, Andreas, Wong, Anthony T., and Ward, Thomas Zac. Dynamic defect correlations dominate activated electronic transport in SrTiO3. United States: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.1038/srep30141.
Snijders, Paul C., Sen, Cengiz, McConnell, Michael P., Ma, Ying-Zhong, May, Andrew F., Herklotz, Andreas, Wong, Anthony T., & Ward, Thomas Zac. Dynamic defect correlations dominate activated electronic transport in SrTiO3. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep30141
Snijders, Paul C., Sen, Cengiz, McConnell, Michael P., Ma, Ying-Zhong, May, Andrew F., Herklotz, Andreas, Wong, Anthony T., and Ward, Thomas Zac. 2016. "Dynamic defect correlations dominate activated electronic transport in SrTiO3". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep30141. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1271865.
@article{osti_1271865,
title = {Dynamic defect correlations dominate activated electronic transport in SrTiO3},
author = {Snijders, Paul C. and Sen, Cengiz and McConnell, Michael P. and Ma, Ying-Zhong and May, Andrew F. and Herklotz, Andreas and Wong, Anthony T. and Ward, Thomas Zac},
abstractNote = {Strontium titanate (SrTiO3, STO) is a critically important material for the study of emergent electronic phases in complex oxides, as well as for the development of applications based on their heterostructures. Despite the large body of knowledge on STO, there are still many uncertainties regarding the role of defects in the properties of STO, including their influence on ferroelectricity in bulk STO and ferromagnetism in STO-based heterostructures. In this paper, we present a detailed analysis of the decay of persistent photoconductivity in STO single crystals with defect concentrations that are relatively low but significantly affect their electronic properties. The results show that photo-activated electron transport cannot be described by a superposition of the properties due to independent point defects as current models suggest but is, instead, governed by defect complexes that interact through dynamic correlations. In conclusion, these results emphasize the importance of defect correlations for activated electronic transport properties of semiconducting and insulating perovskite oxides.},
doi = {10.1038/srep30141},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1271865}, journal = {Scientific Reports},
issn = {2045-2322},
number = ,
volume = 6,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Jul 22 00:00:00 EDT 2016},
month = {Fri Jul 22 00:00:00 EDT 2016}
}

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Cited by: 5 works
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