Journal
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 8, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-00245-9
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Funding
- JSPS [14J04693]
- JSPS KAKENHI [26249094]
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [14J04693, 26249094] Funding Source: KAKEN
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Photoferroelectrics offer unique opportunities to explore light energy conversion based on their polarization-driven carrier separation and above-bandgap voltages. The problem associated with the wide bandgap of ferroelectric oxides, i.e., the vanishingly small photo-response under visible light, has been overcome partly by bandgap tuning, but the narrowing of the bandgap is, in principle, accompanied by a substantial loss of ferroelectric polarization. In this article, we report an approach, 'gap-state' engineering, to produce photoferroelectrics, in which defect states within the bandgap act as a scaffold for photogeneration. Our first-principles calculations and single-domain thin-film experiments of BiFeO3 demonstrate that gap states half-filled with electrons can enhance not only photocurrents but also photovoltages over a broad photon-energy range that is different from intermediate bands in present semiconductor-based solar cells. Our approach opens a promising route to the material design of visible-light-active ferroelectrics without sacrificing spontaneous polarization.
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