Influence of the\nDeviation from Stoichiometry on Transport\nProperties of Titanium Oxides Thin Films

This study examines the impact of structural defects,\nresulting\nfrom oxygen vacancies, on the electrical conductivity of thin films\nof nonstoichiometric titanium oxides across a temperature range of\n20 to 290 K. It is demonstrated that vacancies significantly influence\nthe transport properties of such systems, as they markedly alter their\nelectronic properties. The characteristic temperatures and densities\nof states as a function of the deviation from stoichiometry are estimated\nbased on the variable range models of Mott and Efros–Shklovskii.\nThe temperature dependence of electrical conductivity reveals a crossover\nregime between the Mott and Efros–Shklovskii regimes. The comprehensive\nexplanation of this result is based on the proposed electrical conductivity\ninterpolation formula, in which the pre-exponential factors depend\nboth on the deviation from stoichiometry and on the exponential dependence\nof temperature derived by Mansfield. Finally, diagrams are proposed\nto enable the verification of the obtained results with respect to\nthe microscopic parameters of thin films of the nonstoichiometric\ntitanium oxides.