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Local p‐ and n‐Type Doping of an Oxide Semiconductor via Electric‐Field‐Driven Defect Migration

Abstract

Abstract Layered oxides exhibit high ionic mobility and chemical flexibility, attracting interest as cathode materials for lithium‐ion batteries and the pairing of hydrogen production and carbon capture. Recently, layered oxides emerged as highly tunable semiconductors. For example, by introducing anti‐Frenkel defects, the electronic hopping conductance in hexagonal manganites is increased locally by orders of magnitude. Here, local acceptor and donor doping in Er(Mn,Ti)O 3 is demonstrated, facilitated by the controlled splitting of anti‐Frenkel defects under applied d.c. voltage. By combining density functional theory calculations, scanning probe microscopy, atom probe tomography, and scanning transmission electron microscopy, it is shown that the oxygen defects can readily be moved through the layered crystal structure, leading to nano‐sized interstitial‐rich (p‐type) and vacancy‐rich (n‐type) regions. The resulting pattern is comparable to dipolar npn‐junctions and stable on the timescale of days. These findings reveal the possibility of temporarily functionalizing oxide semiconductors at the nanoscale, giving additional opportunities for the field of oxide electronics and the development of transient electronics in general.
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Category

Academic article

Language

English

Author(s)

  • Jiali He
  • Ursula Ludacka
  • Kasper Aas Hunnestad
  • Didrik René Småbråten
  • Konstantin Shapovalov
  • Per Erik Vullum
  • constantinos hatzoglou
  • Donald Malcolm Evans
  • Erik Dobloug Roede
  • Zewu Yan
  • Edith Bourret
  • Sverre Magnus Selbach
  • David Gao
  • Jaakko Akola
  • Dennis Meier

Affiliation

  • SINTEF Industry / Sustainable Energy Technology
  • SINTEF Industry / Materials and Nanotechnology
  • Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Date

18.09.2025

Year

2025

Published in

Advanced Science

Volume

12

Issue

43

View this publication at Norwegian Research Information Repository