BaBiO3 is a charged ordered Peierls-like perovskite well known for its superconducting properties upon K or Pb doping. We present a study on the transport and electronic properties of BaBiO3 perovskite with strong Bi-deficiency. We show that it is possible to synthesize BaBiO3 thin layers with Bi-vacancies above 8-10% by depositing an yttrium-stabilized zirconia capping layer. By combining transport measurements with ab initio calculations we propose an scenario where the Bi-vacancies give rise to the formation of polarons and suggest that the electrical transport is dominated by the migration of these polarons trapped at Bi3+ sites. Our work shows that cation vacancies engineering -- hardly explored to date -- appears as a promising pathway to tune the electronic and functional properties of perovskites.
@article{arxiv.2104.04573,
title = {Polarons formation in Bi-deficient BaBiO$_3$},
author = {W. Román Acevedo and S. Di Napoli and F. Romano and G. Rodríguez Ruiz and P. Nukala and C. Quinteros and J. Lecourt and U. Lüders and V. Vildosola and D. Rubi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2104.04573},
year = {2021}
}