Reducing Coercive-Field Scaling in Ferroelectric Thin Films via Orientation Control

Xu, Ruijuan; Gao, Ran; Reyes-Lillo, Sebastian E.; Saremi, Sahar; Dong, Yongqi; Lu, Hongling; Chen, Zuhuang; Lu, Xiaoyan; Qi, Yajun; Hsu, Shang-Lin; Damodaran, Anoop R.; Zhou, Hua; Neaton, Jeffrey B.; Martin, Lane W.

doi:10.1021/acsnano.8b01399

Title: Reducing Coercive-Field Scaling in Ferroelectric Thin Films via Orientation Control

Journal Article · Wed Apr 11 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · ACS Nano

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.8b01399· OSTI ID:1466327

^[1]; Gao, Ran ^[1]; Reyes-Lillo, Sebastian E. ^[2]; Saremi, Sahar ^[1]; Dong, Yongqi ^[3]; Lu, Hongling ^[1];

^[1]; Lu, Xiaoyan ^[4]; Qi, Yajun ^[5]; Hsu, Shang-Lin ^[6]; Damodaran, Anoop R. ^[1]; Zhou, Hua ^[7]; Neaton, Jeffrey B. ^[8];

^[6]

Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
Univ. Andres Bello, Santiago (Chile); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Univ. of Science and Technology of China, Hefei (China)
Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin (China)
Hubei Univ., Wuhan (China)
Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Kavli Energy NanoScience Institute at Berkeley, CA (United States)

The desire for low-power/voltage operation of devices is driving renewed interest in understanding scaling effects in ferroelectric thin films. As the dimensions of ferroelectrics are reduced, the properties can vary dramatically, including the robust scaling relationship between coercive field (E_c) and thickness (d), also referred to as the Janovec-Kay-Dunn (JKD) law, wherein E_c ∝ d^-2/3. Here, we report that whereas (001)-oriented heterostructures follow JKD scaling across the thicknesses range of 20-330 nm, (111)-oriented heterostructures of the canonical tetragonal ferroelectric PbZr_0.2Ti_0.8O₃ exhibit a deviation from JKD scaling wherein a smaller scaling exponent for the evolution of E_c is observed in films of thickness ≤ 165 nm. X-ray diffraction reveals that whereas (001)-oriented heterostructures remain tetragonal for all thicknesses, (111)-oriented heterostructures exhibit a transition from tetragonal-to-monoclinic symmetry in films of thickness ≤ 165 nm as a result of the compressive strain. First-principles calculations suggest that this symmetry change contributes to the deviation from the expected scaling, as the monoclinic phase has a lower energy barrier for switching. This structural evolution also gives rise to changes in the c/a lattice parameter ratio, wherein this ratio increases and decreases in (001)- and (111)-oriented heterostructures, respectively, as the films are made thinner. In (111)-oriented heterostructures, this reduced tetragonality drives a reduction of the remanent polarization and, therefore, a reduction of the domain-wall energy and overall energy barrier to switching, which further exacerbates the deviation from the expected scaling. Altogether, this work demonstrates a route toward reducing coercive fields in ferroelectric thin films and provides a possible mechanism to understand the deviation from JKD scaling.

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Research Organization:: Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-06CH11357; AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1466327

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1462002

Journal Information:: ACS Nano, Vol. 12, Issue 5; ISSN 1936-0851

Publisher:: American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 32 works

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36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
coercive-field scaling
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size effects
thin film
x-ray diffraction

Title: Reducing Coercive-Field Scaling in Ferroelectric Thin Films via Orientation Control

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