Giant Ferroelectric Polarization in Ultrathin Ferroelectrics via Boundary-Condition Engineering
- Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States). Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science; Nanjing Univ. (China). National Lab. of Solid State Microstructures. College of Engineering and Applied Sciences
- Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States). Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
- Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
- Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
- Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
- Nanjing Univ. (China). National Lab. of Solid State Microstructures. College of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Tailoring and enhancing the functional properties of materials at reduced dimension is critical for continuous advancement of modern electronic devices. Here, the discovery of local surface induced giant spontaneous polarization in ultrathin BiFeO 3 ferroelectric films is reported. Using aberration‐corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy, it is found that the spontaneous polarization in a 2 nm‐thick ultrathin BiFeO 3 film is abnormally increased up to ≈90–100 µC cm −2 in the out‐of‐plane direction and a peculiar rumpled nanodomain structure with very large variation in c / a ratios, which is analogous to morphotropic phase boundaries (MPBs), is formed. By a combination of density functional theory and phase‐field calculations, it is shown that it is the unique single atomic Bi 2 O 3 − x layer at the surface that leads to the enhanced polarization and appearance of the MPB‐like nanodomain structure. This finding clearly demonstrates a novel route to the enhanced functional properties in the material system with reduced dimension via engineering the surface boundary conditions.
- Research Organization:
- Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States); Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States); Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States); Nanjing Univ. (China)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF); National Basic Research Program of China; National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- FG02-07ER46417; SC0002334; SC0014430; AC02-05CH11231; DMR-1210588; DMR-1420620; ECCS-0335765; 2015CB654901; 51302132; 11474147
- OSTI ID:
- 1533044
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1374090
- Journal Information:
- Advanced Materials, Vol. 29, Issue 30; ISSN 0935-9648
- Publisher:
- WileyCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Web of Science
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