Reduced extrinsic recombination process in anatase and rutile TiO₂ epitaxial thin films for efficient electron...

TiO₂ is the most widely used material for the electron transport layers (ETLs) because it is characterized by proper band alignment with light absorbers, adequate optical transmittance, and high electron mobility. There are two thermodynamically stable crystal phases of TiO₂: anatase and rutile. However, understanding which phase is more effective as the ETL is still required. In this paper, we demonstrate the different effects of using epitaxial anatase TiO₂ and epitaxial rutile TiO₂ (both grown using pulsed laser deposition) as the ETL material on the electrical and optical properties. Epitaxial Nb-doped TiO₂ layers were used as the common electrode material for the both epitaxial ETLs for which the crystalline structural analysis revealed high crystalline qualities and good coherency for both phases. By analyzing the recombination kinetics, the anatase phase shows a preferable performance in comparison with the rutile phase, although both epitaxial phases show remarkably reduced extrinsic recombination properties, such as trap-assisted recombination. This study demonstrates not only a better electron transporting performance of anatase phase but also reduced extrinsic recombination through epitaxy growth.