Investigation of band gap narrowing in nitrogen-doped La2Ti2O7 with transient absorption spectroscopy

Doping a semiconductor can extend the light absorption range, however, it usually introduces mid-gap states, reducing the charge carrier lifetime. This report shows that doping lanthanum dititinate (La2Ti2O7) with nitrogen extends the valence band edge by creating a continuum of dopant states, increasing the light absorption edge from 380 nm to 550 nm without adding mid-gap states. The dopant states are experimentally resolved in the excited state by correlating transient absorption spectroscopy with a supercontinuum probe and DFT prediction. The lack of mid-gap states is further confirmed by measuring the excited state lifetimes, which reveal the shifted band edge only increased carrier thermalization rates to the band edge and not interband charge recombination under both ultraviolet and visible excitation. Terahertz (time-domain) spectroscopy also reveals that the conduction mechanism remains unchanged after doping, suggesting the states are delocalized.