| Literature DB >> 29396396 |
Thomas J Penfold1, Jakub Szlachetko2,3, Fabio G Santomauro4, Alexander Britz5,6, Wojciech Gawelda5,7, Gilles Doumy8, Anne Marie March8, Stephen H Southworth8, Jochen Rittmann4, Rafael Abela2, Majed Chergui4, Christopher J Milne9.
Abstract
Nanostructures of transition metal oxides, such as zinc oxide, have attracted considerable interest for solar-energy conversion and photocatalysis. Both applications are sensitive to the transport and trapping of photoexcited charge carriers. The probing of electron trapping has recently become possible using time-resolved element-sensitive methods, such as X-ray spectroscopy. However, valence-band-trapped holes have so far escaped observation. Herein we use X-ray absorption spectroscopy combined with a dispersive X-ray emission spectrometer to probe the charge carrier relaxation and trapping processes in zinc oxide nanoparticles after above band-gap photoexcitation. Our results, supported by simulations, demonstrate that within 80 ps, photoexcited holes are trapped at singly charged oxygen vacancies, which causes an outward displacement by ~15% of the four surrounding zinc atoms away from the doubly charged vacancy. This identification of the hole traps provides insight for future developments of transition metal oxide-based nanodevices.Entities:
Year: 2018 PMID: 29396396 PMCID: PMC5797134 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-02870-4
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Nat Commun ISSN: 2041-1723 Impact factor: 14.919
Fig. 1Experimental Setup. Upper panel shows: Schematic of the experimental setup used herein, with the two-crystal von Hamos XES spectrometer and scintillator/photomultiplier tube (PMT). The signals measured by the various components are shown adjacent to the detectors. Lower panel shows: The ground state Zn K-edge XAS, Kα, Kβ and valence to core spectrum (dashed lines) and corresponding simulations (solid lines)
Fig. 2Ground-state and 80 ps transient X-ray absorption spectrum (XAS). Experimental ground-state XAS (black) and transient XAS difference of the excited minus the unexcited spectra (red) at 80 ps time delay after photo excitation with 355 nm. Error bars shown are the standard error of the experimental measurement
Fig. 3Ground-state and transient XAS spectra. a Experimental (black) and simulated (red) ground-state EXAFS spectrum. b The simulated difference EXAFS spectrum (blue) assuming an excited state structure corresponding to a vacancy with 15% Zn–O bond distortion away from the vacancy and 13% excitation overlaid with the experimental transient EXAFS spectrum (red) measured at 80 ps after excitation. c Experimental (black) and simulated (red) ground-state XANES spectrum. d The simulated difference XANES spectrum (blue) assuming an excited state structure identical to that simulated in (b) and 13% excitation shown with the experimental transient XANES spectrum (red) measured at 80 ps after excitation. Error bars shown are the standard error of the experimental measurement
Fig. 4Ground state and transient Kα and Kβ RXES. The ground state Zn Kα (a) and Zn Kβ (b) RXES spectra of 32 nm ZnO nanoparticles in aqueous colloidal solution. The transient Zn Kα (c) and Zn Kβ (d) RXES spectra of 32 nm ZnO nanoparticles in colloidal solution measured 80 ps after photoexcitation at 355 nm with a fluence of 80 mJ/cm2. In c, d, red indicates positive and blue indicates negative changes
Fig. 5XES transients compared to simulation. Transient XES signals measured at an incident energy of 9.8 keV corrected for the change in total X-ray absorption cross-section (see Supplementary Note 3 for details) for the Zn Kα (a) and Kβ (b) emission signals (red data points) overlaid with the simulation of the transient XES signals using the excited state structure of the vacancy (black curve). Error bars shown are the standard error of the experimental measurement
Fig. 6Structural changes. a Schematic of the ZnO structure without the oxygen vacancy, which is the dominant structure probed in the ground state, and (b) structural distortion around the vacancy, which occurs upon the trapping of a hole at a vacancy and the corresponding outward displacement of the four nearest neighbour Zn atoms (Zn1–4) by ~15%