Electrical Conductivity of α-Fe₂O₃

Structural, optical and electrical properties of undoped polycrystalline hematite thin films produced using filtered arc deposition

“…Fe 2 O 3 films produced by Miller et al [36] using magnetron sputtering showed lower activation energies of (0.21-0.34) eV, which could be related to their lower preparation temperatures and cooling under vacuum. The activation energy of doped hematite has been shown to be highly anisotropic [3]. The difference in activation energies of our films and those prepared by Miller et al may be related to the different crystallographic orientations observed.…”

“…This is thought to be the result of the very low drift mobilities of charge carriers in this range, which require thermal activation to hop between lattice sites [2]. Conductivity in hematite is highly anisotropic, observed experimentally [3,4] and confirmed theoretically [5][6][7], and explained by its antiferromagnetic structure [1,5,6].…”

Electrical transport properties of Ti-doped Fe2O3(0001) epitaxial films

“…[11][12][13] Crystallographic anisotropies in the conductivity have also been observed and attributed to spin flip scattering, which lowers the conductivity for transport along the c axis. 13,14 Although progress has been made on the theoretical front, experimental studies of transport in hematite have been limited due to difficulties resulting from the generally high resistivity of hematite and ambiguities associated with measurements on polycrystalline samples. 10,13,15 Natural hematite can be weakly conductive due to the presence of impurities which act as unintentional electrical dopants.…”

Solar Water Splitting: Progress Using Hematite (α‐Fe2O3) Photoelectrodes

“…[43] Further studies of hematite single crystals identified a highly anisotropic electron transport with conduction along the iron bilayer (001) basal plane up to four orders of magnitude greater than perpendicular directions (parallel to [001]). [44][45] This discrepancy cannot be explained by the proximity of iron cations alone, as the shortest Fe-Fe distances are actually along the [001] direction. [46] However the anisotropic conductivity can be classically explained considering Hund's rule and the magnetic structure of hematite.…”