Carrier transport through grain boundaries in semiconductors

Blatter, G.; Greuter, F.

doi:10.1103/physrevb.33.3952

Cited by 378 publications

(227 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…S9). This can be explained by the presence of a higher interfacial trap density at grain boundaries in the 2L sample 31,37 , and is also consistent with an increased density of high angle grain boundaries. Although these results have to be considered with caution because the slow wearing of the C-AFM tip that occurs with each scan can introduce a systematic error in the measurements, repeated scans in the same area yielded similar results and suggested that the systematic error was small (Supplementary Fig.…”

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confidence: 54%

Identifying champion nanostructures for solar water-splitting

et al. 2013

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Citation for published item:rrenD FgF nd o¤ %t hovskyD uF nd hot nD rF nd veroyD gFwF nd gornuzD wF nd tell iD pF nd r¡ e ertD gF nd oths hildD eF nd qr¤ tzelD wF @PHIQA 9sdentifying h mpion n nostru tures for sol r w terEsplittingF9D x ture m teri lsFD IP @WAF ppF VRPEVRWF Further information on publisher's website: httpXGGdxFdoiForgGIHFIHQVGnm tQTVR Publisher's copyright statement: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-pro t purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Charge transport in nanoparticle-based materials underlies many emerging energy conversion technologies, yet assessing the impact of nanometer-scale structure on charge transport across micron-scale distances remains a challenge. Here we develop an approach for correlating the spatial distribution of crystalline and current-carrying domains in entire nanoparticle aggregates. We apply this approach to nanoparticle-based α-Fe 2 O 3 electrodes that are of interest in solar-to-hydrogen energy conversion. In correlating structure and charge transport with nanometer resolution across micron-scale distances, we have identified the existence of champion nanoparticle aggregates that are most responsible for the high photoelectrochemical activity of the present electrodes. Indeed, when electrodes are fabricated with a high proportion of these champion nanostructures, the electrodes achieve the highest photocurrent of any metal oxide photoanode for photoelectrochemical water splitting under 100 mW cm -2 air mass 1.5 global sunlight.Batteries, fuel cells, and solar energy conversion devices have emerged as a class of important technologies that increasingly rely upon electrodes derived from nanoparticles 1 . These nanoparticle-based materials provide a unique challenge in assessing structure-property relationships because of the disordered arrangement of nanocrystals that results when nanoparticles collide and aggregate [2][3][4][5][6] . The morphological evolution that follows aggregation further obscures the influence of particle size, shape, and interfacial characteristics in defining the physical properties of these materials 7,8 . For the nanoparticle-based electrodes used in solar energy conversion, structural defects such as grain boundaries define pathways for charge transport by creating potential barriers and by promoting recombination 9 . Because of the complexity of these materials, within a single electrode there may exist a small proportion of "champion" nanostructures-by analogy with champion solar cells 10,11 , these are nanostructures that provide the highest solar conversion efficiencies-th...

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confidence: 54%

Identifying champion nanostructures for solar water-splitting

et al. 2013

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“…Ohmicða ¼ 1Þ; subOhmicða , 1Þ and exponential regionsða . 1Þ with an increase in the voltage [5,18]. This can be considered to depend on the density and the energy position of acceptorlike interface states in the band gap.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-linear current–voltage characteristics related to native defects in SrTiO₃ and ZnO bicrystals

Satô

Tanaka

Oba

et al. 2003

Science and Technology of Advanced Materials

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SrTiO 3 and ZnO bicrystals with various types of boundaries were fabricated in order to examine their current -voltage characteristics across single grain boundaries. Their grain boundary structures were also investigated by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. In Nb-doped SrTiO 3 , electron transport behaviors depend on the type of boundaries. Random type boundaries exhibit highly non-linear current-voltage characteristics, while low angle boundaries show a slight non-linearity. On the contrary, undoped ZnO does not exhibit nonlinear current -voltage characteristics in any type of boundaries including random ones. It is suggested that the differences observed in current-voltage properties between the two systems are mainly due to the difference in the accumulation behavior of acceptor-like native defects at grain boundaries. A clear non-linearity is obtained by means of Co-doping even for the highly coherent S1 boundary in a ZnO bicrystal. This is considered to result from the production of acceptor-like native defects by Co-doping. q

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“…32,33 However, the microscopic origins of DSB are still un-fully identified, 32 though various models have been proposed focusing on the conduction mechanism since the discovery of non-ohmic properties of ZnO varistors by Matsuoka, 34 including the successful description by Pike, Blatter and Greuter. 1,33,35,36 So far, the intergranular layer, 34 segregation of additives, 37,38 thin disordered layer, 39 oxygen-excess defects like chemisorbed oxygen or excess amount of oxygen, 40,41 native point defects such as zinc vacancy (V Zn ) and oxygen interstitial (O i ), 2,15,42 and certain complex defect composed of additives and native defects 43 have all been considered as the possible candidates for promoting the generation of acceptor-states. In effect, recent successes in performing first-principles calculations on ZnO materials to consider the grain boundary structure, 2,32 dopant segregation 44 and defect formation [43][44][45] have made it possible to understand the formation of acceptor state from atomic scale.…”

Section: A Formation Of Double-schottky Barriermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bismuth or praseodymium is the critical additive as DSB activator that is frequently doped during sintering of ZnO varistors, among which those doped Bi-atoms could appear either as isolated atoms decorating the ZnO grain boundaries or as a thin amorphous Bi 2 O 3 layer (typical thickness as 0.6-1.5 nm 33,46 ) depending on the cooling process. 5,44 It has been debated in the literature which of these two types of Bi configurations give rise to the most pronounced nonlinearity.…”

Section: A Formation Of Double-schottky Barriermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…78 Basically, this value could estimate the difficulty and possibility of migration for various defect ions. Using the Blatter and Greuter's model, 33,78 the Schottky barrier Φ(x,t) and further the distribution of electric field E(x,t) in DSB region can be calculated by confining the Poisson's equation with boundary conditions. 78 Then advection equation, which is frequently used for characterization of diffusion process, is utilized to characterize the migration process:…”

Section: Identification Of Dominant Mobile Ionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Electrical degradation of double-Schottky barrier in ZnO varistors

Cheng

2016

AIP Advances

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Researches on electrical degradation of double-Schottky barrier in ZnO varistors are reviewed, aimed at the constitution of a full picture of universal degradation mechanism within the perspective of defect. Recent advances in study of ZnO materials by atomic-scale first-principles calculations are partly included and discussed, which brings to our attention distinct cognition on the native point defects and their profound impact on degradation.

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Carrier transport through grain boundaries in semiconductors

Cited by 378 publications

References 18 publications

Identifying champion nanostructures for solar water-splitting

Identifying champion nanostructures for solar water-splitting

Non-linear current–voltage characteristics related to native defects in SrTiO₃ and ZnO bicrystals

Electrical degradation of double-Schottky barrier in ZnO varistors

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Carrier transport through grain boundaries in semiconductors

Cited by 378 publications

References 18 publications

Identifying champion nanostructures for solar water-splitting

Identifying champion nanostructures for solar water-splitting

Non-linear current–voltage characteristics related to native defects in SrTiO3 and ZnO bicrystals

Electrical degradation of double-Schottky barrier in ZnO varistors

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Product

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Non-linear current–voltage characteristics related to native defects in SrTiO₃ and ZnO bicrystals