Hunting for the elusive shallow traps in TiO2 anatase.

Understanding electron mobility on TiO2 is crucial because of its applications in photocatalysis and solar cells. This work shows that shallow traps believed to be involved in electron migration in TiO2 conduction band are formed upon band gap excitation, i.e., are not pre-existing states. The shallow traps in TiO2 results from large polarons and are not restricted to surface.