Abstract
Epitaxial chromium ferrite (Fe2CrO4), prepared by state‐of‐the‐art oxygen plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy, is shown to exhibit unusual electronic transport properties driven by the crystallographic structure and composition of the material. Replacing 1/3 of the Fe cations with Cr converts the host ferrimagnet from a metal into a semiconductor by virtue of its fixed valence (3+); Cr substitutes for Fe at B sites in the spinel lattice. By contrast, replacing 2/3 of the Fe cations with Cr results in an insulator. Three candidate conductive paths, all involving electron hopping between Fe2+ and Fe3+, are identified in Fe2CrO4. Moreover, Fe2CrO4 is shown to be photoconductive across the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. As a result, this material is of potential interest for important photo‐electrochemical processes such as water splitting.
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