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Title: Microwave a.c. conductivity of domain walls in ferroelectric thin films

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11630· OSTI ID:1337814
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [1];  [3];  [4]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1]
  1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences
  2. Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China). State Key Lab. for Low-Dimensional Quantum Physics. Dept. of Physics. Collaborative Innovation Center for Quantum Matter; RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS), Wako (Japan)
  3. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering. Dept. of Physics
  4. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering. Dept. of Physics; Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Materials Science Division

Ferroelectric domain walls are of great interest as elementary building blocks for future electronic devices due to their intrinsic few-nanometre width, multifunctional properties and field- controlled topology. To realize the electronic functions, domain walls are required to be electrically conducting and addressable non-destructively. However, these properties have been elusive because conducting walls have to be electrically charged, which makes them unstable and uncommon in ferroelectric materials. Here we reveal that spontaneous and recorded domain walls in thin films of lead zirconate and bismuth ferrite exhibit large conductance at microwave frequencies despite being insulating at d.c. We explain this effect by morphological roughening of the walls and local charges induced by disorder with the overall charge neutrality. a.c. conduction is immune to large contact resistance enabling completely non-destructive walls read-out. This demonstrates a technological potential for harnessing a.c. conduction for oxide electronics and other materials with poor d.c. conduction, particularly at the nanoscale.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Basic Research Program of China; National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)
Contributing Organization:
RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS), Wako (Japan); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0012375; 2015CB921700; 11274194; AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1337814
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1414757
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Vol. 7, Issue 2016; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 75 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (28)

Direct Observation of Ferroelectric Domain Walls in LiNbO 3 : Wall-Meanders, Kinks, and Local Electric Charges journal September 2016
Manipulation of Conductive Domain Walls in Confined Ferroelectric Nanoislands journal May 2019
Emergent Low-Symmetry Phases and Large Property Enhancements in Ferroelectric KNbO 3 Bulk Crystals journal June 2017
Intrinsic Conductance of Domain Walls in BiFeO 3 journal June 2019
An Electronically Driven Improper Ferroelectric: Tungsten Bronzes as Microstructural Analogs for the Hexagonal Manganites journal August 2019
Unexpected Giant Microwave Conductivity in a Nominally Silent BiFeO 3 Domain Wall journal January 2020
Ferroelectric Domain Wall Motion in Freestanding Single‐Crystal Complex Oxide Thin Film journal December 2019
Conductive AFM for Nanoscale Analysis of High-k Dielectric Metal Oxides book January 2019
Field enhancement of electronic conductance at ferroelectric domain walls journal November 2017
Piezo-generated charge mapping revealed through direct piezoelectric force microscopy journal October 2017
Displacement Current in Domain Walls of Bismuth Ferrite journal March 2018
Electrical half-wave rectification at ferroelectric domain walls journal September 2018
Ferroelectricity-free lead halide perovskites journal January 2019
Measurement of surface acoustic wave resonances in ferroelectric domains by microwave microscopy journal August 2017
Optically coupled methods for microwave impedance microscopy journal April 2018
Avalanches from charged domain wall motion in BaTiO 3 during ferroelectric switching journal January 2020
Stable charged antiparallel domain walls in hyperferroelectrics journal May 2017
Wafer-scale very large memory windows in graphene monolayer/HfZrO ferroelectric capacitors journal August 2018
Electromagnetic energy harvesting based on HfZrO tunneling junctions journal August 2018
Local characterization of mobile charge carriers by two electrical AFM modes: multi-harmonic EFM versus sMIM journal February 2018
Functional Ferroic Domain Walls for Nanoelectronics journal September 2019
Avalanches from charged domain wall motion in BaTiO3 during ferroelectric switching text January 2020
Piezo-generated charge mapping revealed through Direct Piezoelectric Force Microscopy text January 2016
Stable Charged Antiparallel Domain Walls in Hyperferroelectrics text January 2017
Measurement of Surface Acoustic Wave Resonances in Ferroelectric Domains by Microwave Microscopy text January 2017
Optically Coupled Methods for Microwave Impedance Microscopy text January 2017
Electrical half-wave rectification at ferroelectric domain walls text January 2018
Low-energy structural dynamics of ferroelectric domain walls in hexagonal rare-earth manganites journal May 2017

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