Photoexcited Small Polaron Formation in Goethite (α-FeOOH) Nanorods Probed by Transient Extreme Ultraviolet Spectroscopy
Abstract
Small polaron formation limits the mobility and lifetimes of photoexcited carriers in metal oxides. As the ligand field strength increases, the carrier mobility decreases, but the effect on the photoexcited small polaron formation is still unknown. Extreme ultraviolet transient absorption spectroscopy is employed to measure small polaron formation rates and probabilities in goethite (α-FeOOH) crystalline nanorods at pump photon energies from 2.2 to 3.1 eV. The measured polaron formation time increases with excitation photon energy from 70 ± 10 fs at 2.2 eV to 350 ± 30 fs at 2.6 eV, whereas the polaron formation probability (85 ± 10%) remains constant. By comparison to hematite (α-Fe_2O_3), an oxide analogue, the role of ligand composition and metal center density in small polaron formation time is discussed. This work suggests that incorporating small changes in ligands and crystal structure could enable the control of photoexcited small polaron formation in metal oxides.
Additional Information
© 2018 American Chemical Society. Received: May 14, 2018; Accepted: July 9, 2018; Published: July 9, 2018. This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division, under Contract No. DE-AC02-05-CH11231, within the Physical Chemistry of Inorganic Nanostructures Program (KC3103). S.K.C. acknowledges support by the Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Postdoctoral Research Award under the EERE Solar Energy Technologies Office. H.-T.C. acknowledges support by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) (FA9550-15-1-0037). J.C.D. acknowledges support by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under DGE 1752814. The authors declare no competing financial interest.Attached Files
Supplemental Material - jz8b01525_si_001.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 89701
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20180918-112320426
- Department of Energy (DOE)
- DE-AC02-05-CH11231
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)
- FA9550-15-1-0037
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
- DGE-1752814
- Created
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2018-09-18Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-16Created from EPrint's last_modified field