Polarization-switching pathway determined electrical transport behaviors in rhombohedral BiFeO3 thin films. Issue 42 (20th October 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wang, Jing; Yang, Huayu; Wang, Yue; Fan, Yuanyuan; Liu, Di; Yang, Yuben; Wu, Jialu; Chen, Mingfeng; Gao, Rongzhen; Huang, Houbing; Wang, Xueyun; Hong, Jiawang; Ma, Jing; Zhang, Jinxing; Nan, Ce-Wen
• Is Part Of: Nanoscale. Volume 13:Issue 42(2021)
• Page Start: 17746
• Page End: 17753
• Publication Date: 2021-10-20
• Subjects: Nanoscience -- Periodicals; Nanotechnology -- Periodicals; 620.505
• DOI: 10.1039/d1nr03993h
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2040-3364

Abstract

Abstract : This study demonstrates the polarization-switching pathway determined electrical transport behaviors in BiFeO3 thin films with a point-contact geometry. Abstract : We investigated the polarization-switching pathway-dependent electrical transport behaviors in rhombohedral-phase BiFeO3 thin films with point contact geometry. By combining conducting-atomic force microscopy and piezoelectric force microscopy, we simultaneously obtained current–voltage curves and the corresponding domain patterns before and after the polarization switching. The results indicate that for the (001)-oriented film, the abrupt current (due to polarization reversing) increases with the enhanced switching voltage for 109° and 180° switching events. More importantly, the abrupt current can be further improved in (110)- and (111)-oriented thin films, which benefits from the stronger modulation of the interfacial Schottky barrier by the enhanced out-of-plane polarization magnitude. The current on–off ratio obtained in a ∼20 nm thick (111)-oriented BiFeO3 thin film at a readout voltage of ∼3 V exceeds (∼6 × 10 5 )%, which is close to the result from a previous report on ultrathin tetragonal BiFeO3 thin films.