Real-space investigation of polarons in hematite Fe₂O₃

Autor(en)

Jesus Redondo, Michele Reticcioli, Vit Gabriel, Dominik Wrana, Florian Ellinger, Michele Riva, Giada Franceschi, Erik Rheinfrank, Igor Sokolović, Zdenek Jakub, Florian Kraushofer, Aji Alexander, Eduard Belas, Laerte L. Patera, Jascha Repp, Michael Schmid, Ulrike Diebold, Gareth S. Parkinson, Cesare Franchini, Pavel Kocan, Martin Setvin

Abstrakt

In polarizable materials, electronic charge carriers interact with the surrounding ions, leading to quasiparticle behavior. The resulting polarons play a central role in many materials properties including electrical transport, interaction with light, surface reactivity, and magnetoresistance, and polarons are typically investigated indirectly through these macroscopic characteristics. Here, noncontact atomic force microscopy (nc-AFM) is used to directly image polarons in Fe2O3 at the single quasiparticle limit. A combination of Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) and kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations shows that the mobility of electron polarons can be markedly increased by Ti doping. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate that a transition from polaronic to metastable free-carrier states can play a key role in migration of electron polarons. In contrast, hole polarons are significantly less mobile, and their hopping is hampered further by trapping centers.

Organisation(en)

Computergestützte Materialphysik

Externe Organisation(en)

Charles University Prague, Technische Universität Wien, Czech Academy of Sciences, Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Universität Regensburg, Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck, Università di Bologna

Journal

Science Advances

Band

10

Anzahl der Seiten

8

ISSN

2375-2548

DOI

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2303.17945

Publikationsdatum

11-2024

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

103015 Kondensierte Materie

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

General

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/a7ab223f-8f46-4d56-b726-301298c02f40