Tunable polaronic conduction in anatase TiO2

Phys Rev Lett. 2013 May 10;110(19):196403. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.196403. Epub 2013 May 7.

Abstract

Oxygen vacancies created in anatase TiO(2) by UV photons (80-130 eV) provide an effective electron-doping mechanism and induce a hitherto unobserved dispersive metallic state. Angle resolved photoemission reveals that the quasiparticles are large polarons. These results indicate that anatase can be tuned from an insulator to a polaron gas to a weakly correlated metal as a function of doping and clarify the nature of conductivity in this material.