Issue 33, 2020

Charge-transfer engineering strategies for tailored ionic conductivity at oxide interfaces

Abstract

Exploiting the electronic charge-transfer across oxide interfaces has emerged as a versatile tool to tailor the electronic and magnetic properties of oxides. Such charge-transfer concepts have been applied to drive insulating oxides into metallic states, to trigger magnetism in non-magnetic oxides, and to render gate-tunable low-dimensional superconductors. While the richness in the electronic and magnetic properties of these systems is the main focus of research, the implications for the ionic transport at oxide interfaces have not received much attention so far. In this communication, we propose that charge-transfer strategies can also be applied to boost ionic charge carrier concentrations at interfaces by orders of magnitude. Based on numerical space-charge modeling, we will illustrate how the ‘p-type’ charge-transfer predicted between SrO-terminated SrTiO3 and LaAlO3 may foster 2-dimensional oxygen ion conduction at the interface. The ion conduction is effectively separated from impurity dopants, which may allow large concentrations of oxygen vacancies to be achieved in the absence of trapping phenomena. The interface promises high ionic conductivity with nanoscale confinement, potentially allowing the design of field-tunable ionic devices.

Graphical abstract: Charge-transfer engineering strategies for tailored ionic conductivity at oxide interfaces

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
09 Apr. 2020
Accepted
06 Jūl. 2020
First published
13 Aug. 2020
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2020,8, 11354-11359

Charge-transfer engineering strategies for tailored ionic conductivity at oxide interfaces

F. Gunkel, D. V. Christensen and N. Pryds, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2020, 8, 11354 DOI: 10.1039/D0TC01780A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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