Light-induced hopping conductivity in a transparent oxide
Abstract
Recently, Hayashi et al (K. Hayashi et al), Nature 419, 462 (2002) found a way to convert a transparent oxide into a persistent conductor using UV light. The simplicity of the insulator-conductor conversion (hydrogen annealing followed by UV irradiation) and the resulting drastic change in conductivity (by 10 orders of magnitude) makes this material an extremely attractive starting point for optoelectronic applications. Despite careful experimental studies, no definitive understanding has been reached on the underlying mechanism responsible for this new dramatic effect. Here we demonstrate that ab-initio calculations provide a detailed explanation of the experimental findings and reveal the origin of the light-induced conductivity. We (i) show that the charge transport, associated with photo-excitation of an electron from hydrogen, occurs by electron hopping, (ii) determine the exact paths for the carrier migration and (iii) derive the temperature behavior of the hopping conductivity. We predict the strong dependence of the transport on the particular hopping centers and their spatial arrangement which is confirmed by our measurements, and investigate the possibility of varying the conductivity by proper doping.
- Publication:
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APS March Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- March 2004
- Bibcode:
- 2004APS..MARY21005M