Anomalous Conductivity in the Rutile Structure Driven by Local Disorder

Authors

Dean Smith, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Daniel Sneed, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Nathan Dasenbrock-Gammon, University of Rochester
Elliot Snider, University of Rochester
G. Alexander Smith, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Christian Childs, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Jeffrey S. Pigot, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Nenad Velisavljevic, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Changyong Park, Argonne National Laboratory
Keith V. Lawler, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Ranga P. Dias, University of RochesterFollow
Ashkan Salamat, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-22-2019

Publication Title

Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters

Volume

10

Issue

18

First page number:

5351

Last page number:

5356

Abstract

Many rutile-type materials are characterized by a softness in shear with pressure which is coupled to a Raman-active librational motion. Combining direct studies of anion positions in SnO2 with measurements of its electronic properties, we find a correlation between O sublattice disorder between 5 and 10 GPa and an anomalous decrease up to 4 orders of magnitude in electrical resistance. Hypotheses into the atomistic nature of the phenomenon are evaluated via ab initio calculations guided by extended X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy analysis, and the most likely mechanism is found to be the displacement of single anions resulting from the pressure-induced softening of the librational mode. On the basis of this mechanism, we propose that the same behavior should feature across all materials exhibiting a rutile → CaCl2 phase transition and that conductivity in other rutile-type materials could be facilitated at ambient pressure by appropriate design of devices to enhance defects of this nature.

Disciplines

Chemistry | Physics

Language

English

Repository Citation

Smith, D., Sneed, D., Dasenbrock-Gammon, N., Snider, E., Smith, G. A., Childs, C., Pigot, J. S., Velisavljevic, N., Park, C., Lawler, K. V., Dias, R. P., Salamat, A. (2019). Anomalous Conductivity in the Rutile Structure Driven by Local Disorder. Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 10(18), 5351-5356.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.9b01633