Efficient photocarrier injection in a transition metal oxide heterostructure

An efficient method for doping a transition metal oxide (TMO) with hole carriers is presented: photocarrier injection (PCI) in an oxide heterostructure. It is shown that an insulating vanadium dioxide (VO2) film is rendered metallic under light irradiation by PCI from an n-type titanium dioxide (TiO2) substrate doped with Nb. Consequently, a large photoconductivity, which is exceptional for TMOs, is found in the VO2/TiO2:Nb heterostructure. We propose an electronic band structure where photoinduced holes created in TiO2:Nb can be transferred into the filled V 3d band via the low-lying O 2p band of VO2.