Origin of colossal ionic conductivity in oxide multilayers: Interface induced sublattice disorder

Timothy J. Pennycook, Matthew J. Beck, Kalman Varga, Maria Varela, Stephen J. Pennycook, Sokrates T. Pantelides

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

121 Scopus citations

Abstract

Oxide ionic conductors typically operate at high temperatures, which limits their usefulness. Colossal room-temperature ionic conductivity was recently discovered in multilayers of yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) and SrTiO3. Here we report density-functional calculations that trace the origin of the effect to a combination of lattice-mismatch strain and O-sublattice incompatibility. Strain alone in bulk YSZ enhances O mobility at high temperatures by inducing extreme O disorder. In multilayer structures, O-sublattice incompatibility causes the same extreme disorder at room temperature.

Original languageEnglish
Article number115901
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume104
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 16 2010

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Physics and Astronomy

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