Title: Unexpected Giant Microwave Conductivity in a Nominally Silent BiFeO3 Domain Wall

Journal Article · · Advanced Materials
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [4];  [2];  [3];  [6];  [4];  [3];  [7];  [2]
  1. Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States); National Chiao Tung Univ. (Taiwan); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Penn State University
  2. Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)
  3. Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Genova (Italy)
  4. Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)
  5. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  6. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  7. National Chiao Tung Univ. (Taiwan)
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Nanoelectronic devices based on ferroelectric domain walls (DWs), such as memories, transistors, and rectifiers, have been shown in recent years. Practical high-speed electronics, on the other hand, usually demand operation frequencies in the gigahertz (GHz) regime, where the effect of dipolar oscillation is important. Herein, an unexpected giant GHz conductivity on the order of 103 S m-1 is observed in certain BiFeO3 DWs, which is about 100 000 times greater than the carrier-induced direct current (dc) conductivity of the same walls. Surprisingly, the nominal configuration of the DWs precludes the alternating current (ac) conduction under an excitation electric field perpendicular to the surface. Theoretical analysis reflects that the inclined DWs are stressed asymmetrically near the film surface, whereas the vertical walls in a control sample are not. The resultant imbalanced polarization profile can then couple to the out-of-plane microwave fields and induce power dissipation, which is confirmed by the phase-field modeling. Since the contributions from mobile-carrier conduction and bound-charge oscillation to the ac conductivity are equivalent in a microwave circuit, the research on local structural dynamics may open a new avenue to implement DW nano-devices for radio-frequency applications.

Research Organization:
Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; FG02-07ER46417
OSTI ID:
1600471
Journal Information:
Advanced Materials, Journal Name: Advanced Materials Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 32; ISSN 0935-9648
Publisher:
WileyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ac conductivity
bismuth ferrite
domain wall nanoelectronics
microwave microscopy