Light-driven permanent transition from insulator to conductor

The transition from insulator to conductor can be realized in some materials but requires modification of both the arrangement of atoms and their electronic configurations. This is often achieved by doping. Here we reveal a different mechanism the lattice may adopt to induce such a transition. Experiments showed the surprising finding that limited exposure to sub-bandgap light caused a permanent transition from an insulator state to a conductor state in the insulating oxide Ga2O3, with 9-orders of magnitude increase in electronic conduction. Furthermore, annealing up to 400 C did not suppress or decrease the induced conductivity. Photoexcitation by light-induced modification in the charge state of defects and subsequent lattice distortion around them was suggested to be the underlying mechanism behind this transition. Density functional theory calculations confirmed that modifying the charge state of defects leads to redistribution of the localized electrons and massive structural distortion in the surrounding lattice, causing large shifts in the density of states and introducing new states with shallower energy levels. Both experimental and theoretical results revealed the introduction of new stable shallow energy levels, explaining the mechanism behind the transition from an insulator to a conductor state by light. We suggest that this mechanism may occur in other wide bandgap metal oxides leading to drastic modification in their electronic properties.