Lattice-assisted proton hopping in oxides at low temperatures

• We model proton jumping diffusion in oxides at low temperature.
• We examine the properties of the phonon assistance essential for proton diffusion.
• The activation energy for diffusion depends on the frequency of phonon assistance.

Stimulated diffusion of protons in oxides such as ABO3 crystals and rutile TiO2 is discussed in the context of quantum Brownian motion. A self-consistent lattice-assisted proton hopping (LAPH) model is developed by going from white noise (characteristic of the standard stochastic theory of superionic conduction) to colored noise in the Markovian limit. This model differs from the commonly used ion jump models in that the hydrogen diffusion rate prefactor is identified as a quantity proportional to the frequency of phonon assistance. Application of the quantum fluctuation–dissipation theorem suggests that the dynamic activation energy for diffusion is a function of a bath-mode frequency. The LAPH model can predict enhanced rates of barrier jumping at room temperature compared to thermally activated proton diffusion. This indicates that low-temperature solid oxide devices are potential candidates for use in hydrogen energy research. The LAPH model offers a valid explanation for the mechanism of high protonic mobility recently observed for TiO2 in a picosecond transient pump-probe experiment. This unexpected dominant lattice relaxation channel must be considered as a new classical-like (but low-temperature) proton transfer mechanism. For vibration-assisted protonic jumps to occur at low temperature, the phonon assistance must be classified as a low-frequency vibration specific to each lattice.