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Updated: Jul 9, 2025

Tuning Oxide Properties by Oxygen Vacancy Control During Growth and Annealing
Published on: June 9, 2023
Unexpected Two-Dimensional Polarons Induced by Oxygen Vacancies in Layered Structure MoO3-
Xiaoxi Guan1, Jiaheng Wang1, He Zheng1
1School of Physics and Technology, Center for Electron Microscopy, MOE Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro- and Nano-structures, and Institute for Advanced Studies, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.
Abstract:
Unveiling the effects of oxygen vacancies on the structural stability of layered α-MoO3 is critical for optimizing its physical and chemical properties. Herein, we present experimental evidence regarding the phase stability of α-MoO3 with ∼2% oxygen vacancy concentrations. Interestingly, we report a previously ignored oxygen-deficient orthorhombic MoO3- phase in space group Cmcm. Further density functional theory calculations reveal a detailed phase transition mechanism from α-MoO3 to MoO3-. More importantly, we demonstrate that two-dimensional (2D) large polarons must exist to stabilize the MoO3- crystal structure. 2D large polarons are suspected to exist in numerous quasi-2D systems but have never been found in layered α-MoO3 or other molybdenum oxides. Our work contributes to a basic understanding of the polaronic behavior in MoO3- and may broaden the application realm of molybdenum oxides.
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