Nominally undoped SrTiO single crystals were illuminated by UV light at 350 °C in oxidizing as well as reducing atmospheres. In N/O atmospheres, UV irradiation enhances the conductivity of SrTiO by several orders of magnitude. In dry H atmosphere UV exposure leads to the opposite conductivity effect, , above band gap energy illumination surprisingly lowers the conductivity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe interaction of light with solids has been of ever-growing interest for centuries, even more so since the quest for sustainable utilization and storage of solar energy became a major task for industry and research. With SrTiO being a model material for an extensive exploration of the defect chemistry of mixed conducting perovskite oxides, it has also been a vanguard in advancing the understanding of the interaction between light and the electronic and ionic structure of solids. In the course of these efforts, many phenomena occurring during or subsequent to the illumination of SrTiO have been investigated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe interplay of structure, composition and electrical conductivity was investigated for Fe-doped SrTiO thin films prepared by pulsed laser deposition. Structural information was obtained by reciprocal space mapping while solution-based inductively-coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy and positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy were employed to reveal the cation composition and the predominant point defects of the thin films, respectively. A severe cation non-stoichiometry with Sr vacancies was found in films deposited from stoichiometric targets.
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