AC Electrical Conduction of Cr-Doped SrTiO3 Thin Films with an Oxygen-Deficient Interface Layer

Abstract

The ac electrical conduction of Cr-doped SrTiO3 thin films with an oxygen-deficient interface layer was investigated as a function of temperature and frequency. The Cr-doped SrTiO3 (Cr-STO) thin films with an ultra-thin (similar to 2 nm) oxygen-deficient layer inserted between the top electrode and the Cr-STO layer exhibited two ac conduction mechanisms, i.e., variable-range hopping and small-polaron hopping conduction, accompanied by a relaxation process. Since high oxygen deficiency induces large lattice distortion in the depletion layer, the first relaxation process occurs at low frequencies in the thin oxygen depletion layer Cr-SrTiO3-delta , and the corresponding conduction behavior follows the small-polaron tunneling model. In the high frequency range, an additional relaxation process is involved and is associated with the variable-range hopping between the localized states in the band gap of the thick Cr-SrTiO3 layer.