Title
Adsorption of Polarized Molecules for Interfacial Band Engineering of Doped TiO Thin Films
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-2-2020
Abstract
Owing to their chemical and mechanical stability, metal-oxides have emerged as potential alternatives for conventional pure-metal and organic molecule-based solid-state electronic devices. Traditionally, band engineering of these metal-oxides has been performed to improve the efficiency of solar cells and transistors. However, recent advancements in the field of oxide-based electronic devices demand reversible band structure engineering for applications in next-generation adaptive electronics and memory devices. Therefore, this work aims to reversibly engineer the surface band structure of doped metal-oxides using stable organic ligands with weak dipoles. -substituted benzoic acid (BZA) ligands with positive and negative dipole moments were adsorbed on the surface of TiO:Ni thin film to modify the interfacial dipole moment, and the valence band structure was probed using surface-sensitive ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS). UPS, paired with density functional theory (DFT) simulations, demonstrate the ability to selectively tune interfacial electronic/chemical landscapes with ligand-dependent dipole moment. The unique ability to reversibly tune the band bending at the organic-inorganic interface of doped metal-oxide semiconductors using molecular dipoles is expected to play a key role in the development of metal-oxide-based adaptive electronics that outperform the conventional polymer-based and Si-based devices.
Publication Source (Journal or Book title)
Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids
First Page
5839
Last Page
5846
Recommended Citation
Darapaneni, P., Kizilkaya, O., Plaisance, C., & Dorman, J. A. (2020). Adsorption of Polarized Molecules for Interfacial Band Engineering of Doped TiO Thin Films. Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids, 36 (21), 5839-5846. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.0c00564