Giant Domain Wall Conductivity in Self‐Assembled BiFeO 3 Nanocrystals
- State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing School of Materials Science and Engineering Tsinghua University Beijing 100084 P. R. China
- National Center for Electron Microscopy in Beijing The State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials (MOE) School of Materials Science and Engineering Tsinghua University Beijing 100084 P. R. China
- School of Materials Science and Engineering UNSW Sydney Sydney NSW 2052 Australia
- X‐ray Science Division Advanced Photon Source Argonne National Laboratory 9700 S. Cass Avenue Lemont IL 60439 USA
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Nanobiomechanics Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology Chinese Academy of Sciences Shenzhen Guangdong 518055 China, Department of Materials Science and Engineering Southern University of Science and Technology Shenzhen Guangdong 518055 China
- School of Materials Science and Engineering UNSW Sydney Sydney NSW 2052 Australia, ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low‐Energy Electronics Technologies UNSW Sydney Sydney NSW 2052 Australia
Abstract Ever‐increasing demand on electronic devices with ultrahigh‐density non‐volatile data storage has attracted great interest in novel ferroelectric memories based on conductive ferroelectric domain walls. Embedded in an insulating material, ferroelectric domain walls have the capability of being (re)created, displaced, erased, and altered in their spatial configurations and electronic characteristics. However, the domain wall conductivities are in most cases not yet sufficiently high to ensure the current density required to drive read‐out circuits operating at high speeds. In this work, a giant domain wall current (>10 µA) of a single charged domain wall is obtained through conductive atomic force microscopy with a bias field of 4 V. This is achieved in self‐assembled BiFeO 3 nanocrystals grown by sol‐gel method on Nb‐doped SrTiO 3 substrates. Local configurations of domains and domain wall types are studied using vector piezoresponse force microscopy and high‐resolution transmission electronic microscopy. The enhancement of the wall current is shown to be due to the formation of conducting pathways of charged defects accumulated along domain walls and traversing the nanocrystals. The diverse domain walls can be manipulated by electric field in a perpendicular architecture. The perpendicular array structure of BiFeO 3 nanocrystals should have great potentials for developing perpendicular nanoelectronic prototypes.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- OSTI ID:
- 1785758
- Journal Information:
- Advanced Functional Materials, Journal Name: Advanced Functional Materials Vol. 31 Journal Issue: 1; ISSN 1616-301X
- Publisher:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- Germany
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Unexpected Giant Microwave Conductivity in a Nominally Silent BiFeO3 Domain Wall
Ferroelectric Domain Studies of Patterned (001) BiFeO3 by Angle-Resolved Piezoresponse Force Microscopy