Low temperature thermally stimulated current characterization of nanoporous TiO2 films

Nanoporous films of TiO2 have been obtained by deposition on an alumina substrate of a commercial colloid and Au contacts have been put on surface for in-plane conductivity measurements. Samples have been characterized by means of a series of sequential thermally stimulated currents scans, from nearly liquid He temperature up to 200 K, in order to get information on: conduction mechanisms, distribution of intragap density of states and recombination times of free an localized carriers. A model for hopping conductivity has been considered to properly take into account of localized states filling; it has been used to fit the experimental data, without a-priori assumptions on the nature of the conduction mechanisms. It is found that hopping conductivity prevails over free-carrier, in quasi-equilibrium regime, in the investigated temperature range.