Slight Ti‐Doping‐Induced Strong Time‐Dependent Electrical Transport Behavior in CuCr1−xTixO2

We investigate the effect of slight Ti substitution (≤0.5%) for Cr in CuCr1−xTixO2 by measuring the structural, magnetic, and electrical transport properties. Upon Ti doping, the antiferromagnetic transition becomes blurred without a change in Neel temperature. Ti4+ substituting to Cr3+ site is found to significantly enhance the resistivity due to the diminishing conducting holes. We find strong time-dependent electrical transport behavior in CuCr1−xTixO2 induced by slight Ti doping. The key observation is that a metastable behavior occurs in Ti-doped CuCr1−xTixO2. A strong resistive relaxation (RR) behavior occurs in Ti-doped CuCr1−xTixO2 with its magnitude remarkably increasing with increasing Ti content, while it is absent in undoped CuCrO2. The RR is found to be described by the combination of an exponential function and a logarithmic dependence at long time. The relaxation behavior in CuCr1−xTixO2 is found to show a correlation with the local lattice deformation.