Defective interfaces in yttrium-doped barium zirconate films and consequences on proton conduction

Nano Letters
Nan YangCarmela Aruta

Abstract

Yttrium-doped barium zirconate (BZY) thin films recently showed surprising electric transport properties. Experimental investigations conducted mainly by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy suggested that a consistent part of this BZY conductivity is of protonic nature. These results have stimulated further investigations by local unconventional techniques. Here, we use electrochemical strain microscopy (ESM) to detect electrochemical activity in BZY films with nanoscale resolution. ESM in a novel cross-sectional measuring setup allows the direct visualization of the interfacial activity. The local electrochemical investigation is compared with the structural studies performed by state of art scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM). The ESM and STEM results show a clear correlation between the conductivity and the interface structural defects. We propose a physical model based on a misfit dislocation network that introduces a novel 2D transport phenomenon, whose fingerprint is the low activation energy measured.

References

Apr 21, 2007·Nano Letters·Marcel LucasElisa Riedo
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Citations

Dec 3, 2020·ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces·Alessandro ChiaraAntonino Martorana

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