Stability of the unswitched ferroelectric polarization state in ultrathin epitaxial Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 in large electric fields

Journal Article · Thu Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2009 · Physical Review B

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.80.014110· OSTI ID:979135

Grigoriev, Alexei ^[1]; Sichel, Rebecca ^[1]; Jo, Ji Young ^[1]; Choudhury, Samrat ^[1]; Chen, L. Q. ^[2]; Lee, Ho Nyung ^[3]; Landahl, Eric C. ^[4]; Adams, Bernhard ^[4]; Dufresne, Eric M. ^[4]; Evans, Paul G. ^[1]

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1. University of Wisconsin, Madison
2. Pennsylvania State University
3. ORNL
4. Argonne National Laboratory (ANL)

A series of 50 ns-duration electric field pulses switches the polarization of a 35 nm-thick ferroelectric Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 film only at electric fields greater than 1.5 MV/cm, a factor of three higher than the low-frequency coercive field. There is no switching in response to a large number of pulses with lower fields, even when the total duration reaches several milliseconds. During longer microsecond-duration electric fields, however, switching progresses monotonically in both x-ray microdiffraction images and in electrical measurements. The difference between long and short electric field durations arises from domain nucleation and charge transport. A phase field model shows that the shrinking of the switched domain in the interval between pulses is a less important effect.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
• Sponsoring Organization: ORNL LDRD Director's R&D
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 979135
• Journal Information: Physical Review B, Journal Name: Physical Review B Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 80; ISSN 1098-0121
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
CHARGE TRANSPORT
ELECTRIC FIELDS
NUCLEATION
POLARIZATION
STABILITY
SWITCHES