Shedding light on the absorption of light by titanium dioxide
Thursday, April 13, 2017 - 04:21
in Physics & Chemistry
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is one of the most promising materials for photovoltaics and photocatalysis nowadays. This material appears in different crystalline forms, but the most attractive one for applications is called "anatase". Despite decades of studies on the conversion of the absorbed light into electrical charges in anatase TiO2, the very nature of its fundamental electronic and optical properties was still unknown. EPFL scientists, with national and international partners, have now shed light onto the problem by a combination of cutting-edge steady-state and ultrafast spectroscopic techniques, as well as theoretical calculations. The work is published in Nature Communications.