The ‘intelligent catalyst’ concept, involving cyclical movement of precious metal atoms in and out of a perovskite oxide lattice, was proposed by Nishihata et al. in 2002, and the precious metal atom (Pd) was then believed to occupy the B site in the perovskite (LaFeO3) lattice, based on X-ray anomalous diffraction measurements [1]. Since then, B site occupancy has generally been assumed for al...

We fabricated a perovskite solar cell with enhanced device efficiency based on the tailored inner space of the TiO2 electrode by utilizing a very short chemical etching process. It was found that the mesoporous TiO2 photoanode treated with a HF solution exhibited remarkably enhanced power conversion efficiencies under simulated AM 1.5G one sun illumination. The controlled inner space and morpho...

Although the size effect in ferroelectric thin films has been known for long time, the underlying mechanism is not yet fully understood and whether or not there is a critical thickness below which the ferroelectricity vanishes is still under debate. Here, we directly measure the thickness-dependent polarization in ultrathin PbZr0.2Ti0.8O3 films via quantitative annular bright field imaging. We ...

The concept 'the interface is the device' is embodied in a wide variety of interfacial electronic phenomena and associated applications in oxide materials, ranging from catalysts and clean energy systems to emerging multifunctional devices. Many device properties are defined by the band alignment, which is often influenced by interface dipoles. On the other hand, the ability to purposefully cre...

There is a growing activity in the search of novel single-phase multiferroics that could finally provide distinctive magnetoelectric responses at room temperature, for they would enable a range of potentially disruptive technologies, making use of the ability of controlling polarization with a magnetic field or magnetism with an electric one (for example, voltage-tunable spintronic devices, unc...

Solution-processed zinc oxide (ZnO)-based planar heterojunction perovskite photovoltaic device is reported in this study. The photovoltaic device benefits from the ZnO film as a high-conductivity and high-transparent electron transport layer. The optimal electron transport layer thickness and post-baking temperature for ZnO are systematically studied by scanning electron microscopy, photolumine...

The 2D electron gas at the polar/non-polar oxide interface has become an important platform for several novel oxide electronic devices. In this paper, the transport properties of a wide range of polar perovskite oxide ABO3/SrTiO3 (STO) interfaces, where ABO3 includes LaAlO3, PrAlO3, NdAlO3, NdGaO3 and LaGaO3 in both crystalline and amorphous forms, were investigated. A robust 4 unit cell (uc) c...

Using reduced graphene oxide (rGO) as a template and high temperature sol-gel chemistry, we have prepared LaFeO3 nanoparticles (NPs). The 15 nm LaFeO3 NPs have a bandgap of 1.86 eV and the LaFeO3-rGO can function as an efficient catalyst for degradation of methylene blue (MB) or Rhodamine B (RhB) under visible-light irradiation with the electron transfer from the dye to hole dominating the oxid...

In this paper we report measurements of 1/f noise in a crystalline metallic oxide with perovskite structure down to 4.2K. The results show existence of localized excitations with average activation energy ≈ 70-80 meV which produce peak in the noise at T ≈ 35-40K. In addition, it shows clear evidence of tunnelling type two-level-systems (as in glasses) which show up in noise measurements below 3...

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have attracted tremendous attentions due to its high performance and rapid efficiency promotion. Compact layer plays a crucial role in transferring electrons and blocking charge recombination between the perovskite layer and fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) in PSCs. In this study, compact TiO2 layers were synthesized by spin-coating method with three different titani...