Self-limited kinetics of electron doping in correlated oxides

Electron doping by hydrogenation can reversibly modify the electrical properties of complex oxides. We show that in order to realize large, fast, and reversible response to hydrogen, it is important to consider both the electron configuration on the transition metal 3d orbitals, as well as the thermodynamic stability in nickelates. Specifically, large doping-induced resistivity modulations ranging several orders of magnitude change are only observed for rare earth nickelates with small ionic radii on the A-site, in which case both electron correlation effects and the meta-stability of Ni3+ are important considerations. Charge doping via metastable incorporation of ionic dopants is of relevance to correlated oxide-based devices where advancing approaches to modify the ground state electronic properties is an important problem.