Crystal structure, electronic and optical properties of epitaxial alkaline Earth niobate thin films

Description

This impressive thesis offers a comprehensive scientific study of the alkaline earth niobates and describes their nonlinear optical properties for the first time. It explores the crystal structure, electrical properties, optical absorption properties, hot carrier dynamics, nonlinear optical property and strain-induced metal to insulator transition of alkaline earth niobates using advanced experimental techniques. These alkaline earth niobates can have a strong plasmon resonance in the visible range due to their large carrier density, and this unique property gives rise to the emergent phenomenon of photocatalysis and nonlinear optical properties. This series of intrinsic plasmonic materials based on niobates, can be used as a photocatalyst to split water under sunlight, a novel saturable absorber in the high-power ultrashort pulsed laser system, and as a sensor in microelectromechanical systems. Front Matter ....Pages i-xvi Introduction (Dongyang Wan)....Pages 1-17 Sample Preparation and Characterization Techniques (Dongyang Wan)....Pages 19-40 The Nature of Electron Transport and Visible Light Absorption in Strontium Niobate—A Plasmonic Water Splitter (Dongyang Wan)....Pages 41-62 Comparison of Water Splitting Efficiencies of MNbO3-δ (M = Ca, Sr, Ba) (Dongyang Wan)....Pages 63-74 New Tunable and Low-Loss Correlated Plasmons in Mott-like Insulating Oxides (Dongyang Wan)....Pages 75-89 The Nonlinear Optical Properties of MNbO3 (M = Ca, Sr, Ba) Thin Films (Dongyang Wan)....Pages 91-101 Strain-Induced Metal to Insulator Transition in Thin Film of SrNbO3 (Dongyang Wan)....Pages 103-111 Summary and Future Work (Dongyang Wan)....Pages 113-116 Back Matter ....Pages 117-120