Off-stoichiometry engineering of the electrical and optical properties of SrNbO$_3$ by oxide molecular beam epitaxy

Abstract

The highly conducting and transparent inorganic perovskites SrBO$_3$ with V, Nb, Mo, and their mixtures at the B-site have recently attracted the attention of the oxide electronics community as novel alternative transparent conducting oxides. For different applications from solar cells to transparent electronics, it is desirable to tune the optical transmission window in the ultraviolet (UV), visible and infrared (IR) range. The conventional approach is substitutional design at the A- and/or B-site. Here, we suggest a method by engineering the off-stoichiometry of the perovskite, opening new pathways to broaden the range of applications without adding additional elements. For oxide molecular beam epitaxy grown SrNbO$_3$ on GdScO$_3$ substrates, we show that controlled Sr deficiency shifts the plasma edge from about 2 eV in the visible range into the near-infrared region, 1.37 eV (similar to stoichiometric SrVO$_3$). Here, epitaxial growth allows going beyond the limitations of phase stability set by thermodynamics. The suggested approach opens a new design toolbox by including controlled vacancy sites as quasi-substitutional virtual elements.