title: Novel Iron-based ternary amorphous oxide semiconductor with very high transparency, electronic conductivity, and mobility.
abstract: Here we report that ternary metal oxides of type (Me)2O3 with the primary metal (Me) constituent being Fe (66 atomic (at.) %) along with the two Lanthanide elements Tb (10 at.%) and Dy (24 at.%) can show excellent semiconducting transport properties. Thin films prepared by pulsed laser deposition at room temperature followed by ambient oxidation showed very high electronic conductivity (>5 × 10(4) S/m) and Hall mobility (>30 cm(2)/V-s). These films had an amorphous microstructure which was stable to at least 500 °C and large optical transparency with a direct band gap of 2.85 ± 0.14 eV. This material shows emergent semiconducting behavior with significantly higher conductivity and mobility than the constituent insulating oxides. Since these results demonstrate a new way to modify the behaviors of transition metal oxides made from unfilled d- and/or f-subshells, a new class of functional transparent conducting oxide materials could be envisioned.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, 37996, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Malasi
authors.affiliation: Bredesen Center, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Taz
authors.affiliation: Department of Material Science and Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Farah
authors.affiliation: Bredesen Center, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.affiliation: Quantum Information Science Group, Computational Sciences and Engineering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lawrie
authors.affiliation: Quantum Information Science Group, Computational Sciences and Engineering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pooser
authors.affiliation: Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA.|Material Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Baddorf
authors.affiliation: Department of Material Science and Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA.|Material Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Duscher
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, 37996, USA.|Bredesen Center, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA.|Department of Material Science and Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kalyanaraman