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Updated: Jul 23, 2025

Tuning Oxide Properties by Oxygen Vacancy Control During Growth and Annealing
Published on: June 9, 2023
Stability of oxygen vacancies at metal/oxide interfaces
Xingwen Zheng1, Ying Yang1, Changfeng Fang2
1School of Physics, Shandong University, Ji'nan 250100, China. liuxiaohui@sdu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
We investigated the influence of work function and charge doping on the formation of oxygen vacancies in metal/oxide heterojunctions by first-principles calculations. SrTiO3 is used as a typical oxide. Simple metals Pt, Au and Ag are used as electrodes. We show that electron doping could improve the formation energy of oxygen vacancies. In such a heterojunction, we found that the work function of the metal electrode affects the stability of oxygen vacancies in SrTiO3. For an electrode with a smaller work function, more electrons are induced and accumulated in the oxides near the interface and improve the formation energy of oxygen vacancies. We also studied the effect of ferroelectric polarization in a heterojunction of metal/BaTiO3 and found similar properties. We hope that our work could help in the design of complex-oxide-based electronic devices.
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