Persistent conductive footprints of 109° domain walls in bismuth ferrite films

Journal Article · Mon Mar 31 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4869851· OSTI ID:22261641

Stolichnov, I.; Iwanowska, M.; Colla, E.; Setter, N. ^[1]; Ziegler, B.; Gaponenko, I.; Paruch, P. ^[2]; Huijben, M.; Rijnders, G. ^[3]

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1. Ceramics Laboratory, EPFL-Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne 1015 (Switzerland)
2. DPMC-MaNEP, University of Geneva, 24 Quai Ernest Ansermet, 1211 Geneva 4 (Switzerland)
3. Faculty of Science and Technology and MESA Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, 7500 AE Enschede (Netherlands)

Using conductive and piezoforce microscopy, we reveal a complex picture of electronic transport at weakly conductive 109° domain walls in bismuth ferrite films. Even once initial ferroelectric stripe domains are changed/erased, persistent conductive paths signal the original domain wall position. The conduction at such domain wall “footprints” is activated by domain movement and decays rapidly with time, but can be re-activated by opposite polarity voltage. The observed phenomena represent true leakage conduction rather than merely displacement currents. We propose a scenario of hopping transport in combination with thermionic injection over interfacial barriers controlled by the ferroelectric polarization.

• OSTI ID: 22261641
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 13; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
BISMUTH
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
FERRITE
FERROELECTRIC MATERIALS
FILMS
THERMIONICS