Real-space investigation of polarons in hematite Fe₂O₃.

ABSTRACT: In polarizable materials, electronic charge carriers interact with the surrounding ions, leading to quasiparticle behavior. The resulting polarons play a central role in many materials properties including electrical transport, interaction with light, surface reactivity, and magnetoresistance, and polarons are typically investigated indirectly through these macroscopic characteristics. Here, noncontact atomic force microscopy (nc-AFM) is used to directly image polarons in Fe₂O₃ at the single quasiparticle limit. A combination of Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) and kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations shows that the mobility of electron polarons can be markedly increased by Ti doping. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate that a transition from po

SUBMITTER: Redondo J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11529705 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature