Electron Correlation in Oxygen Vacancy in SrTiO$_3$

Bibliographic Details
Title: Electron Correlation in Oxygen Vacancy in SrTiO$_3$
Authors: Lin, Chungwei, Demkov, Alexander A.
Source: Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 217601 (2013)
Publication Year: 2013
Collection: Condensed Matter
Subject Terms: Condensed Matter - Strongly Correlated Electrons, Condensed Matter - Materials Science
More Details: Oxygen vacancies are an important type of defect in transition metal oxides. In SrTiO$_3$ they are believed to be the main donors in an otherwise intrinsic crystal. At the same time, a relatively deep gap state associated with the vacancy is widely reported. To explain this inconsistency we investigate the effect of electron correlation in an oxygen vacancy (OV) in SrTiO$_3$. When taking correlation into account, we find that the OV-induced localized level can at most trap one electron, while the second electron occupies the conduction band. Our results offer a natural explanation of how the OV in SrTiO$_3$ can produce a deep in-gap level (about 1 eV below the conduction band bottom) in photoemission, and at the same time be an electron donor. Our analysis implies an OV in SrTiO$_3$ should be fundamentally regarded as a magnetic impurity, whose deep level is always partially occupied due to the strong Coulomb repulsion. An OV-based Anderson impurity model is derived, and its implications are discussed.
Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, double spaced
Document Type: Working Paper
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.217601
Access URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/1311.5160
Accession Number: edsarx.1311.5160
Database: arXiv
More Details
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.217601