Crystalline structure 'a la carte' - Laser-assisted photoactivation of TiO2 films at room temperature and ambient air

Achieving high-quality crystalline TiO2 films at room-temperature remains one of today's most important technical challenges toward low-cost optoelectronic devices including photovoltaic cells and photocatalytic device architectures. A research team has now demonstrated a simple method for triggering the crystallization of a TiO2 sol-gel precursor at low-energies. With this technique, it is now possible to achieve 90% crystallinity without metallic dopants, at room temperature and in ambient air, using low-power laser-induced photoactivation of an amorphous TiO2 nanoparticle film.