Field enhancement of electronic conductance at ferroelectric domain walls. Issue 1 (December 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Vasudevan, Rama; Cao, Ye; Laanait, Nouamane; Ievlev, Anton; Li, Linglong; Yang, Jan-Chi; Chu, Ying-Hao; Chen, Long-Qing; Kalinin, Sergei; Maksymovych, Petro
• Is Part Of: Nature communications. Volume 8:Issue 1(2017)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 10
• Publication Date: 2017-12
• Subjects: Biology -- Periodicals; Physical sciences -- Periodicals; 505
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01334-5
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2041-1723

Abstract

Abstract Ferroelectric domain walls have continued to attract widespread attention due to both the novelty of the phenomena observed and the ability to reliably pattern them in nanoscale dimensions. However, the conductivity mechanisms remain in debate, particularly around nominally uncharged walls. Here, we posit a conduction mechanism relying on field-modification effect from polarization re-orientation and the structure of the reverse-domain nucleus. Through conductive atomic force microscopy measurements on an ultra-thin (001) BiFeO3 thin film, in combination with phase-field simulations, we show that the field-induced twisted domain nucleus formed at domain walls results in local-field enhancement around the region of the atomic force microscope tip. In conjunction with slight barrier lowering, these two effects are sufficient to explain the observed emission current distribution. These results suggest that different electronic properties at domain walls are not necessary to observe localized enhancement in domain wall currents. Understanding the conductivity at the nominally uncharged domain walls in ferroelectrics is still far from complete. Here the authors report an enhanced conduction at domain walls in an ultra-thin (001) BiFeO3 film resulting from the formation of a field-induced meta-stable twisted domain nucleus.