Functional electronic inversion layers at ferroelectric domain walls
Ferroelectric domain walls hold great promise as functional two-dimensional materials because of their unusual electronic properties. Particularly intriguing are the so-called charged walls where a polarity mismatch causes local, diverging electrostatic potentials requiring charge compensation and h...
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Published in | Nature materials Vol. 16; no. 6; pp. 622 - 627 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
London
Nature Publishing Group UK
01.06.2017
Nature Publishing Group |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Ferroelectric domain walls hold great promise as functional two-dimensional materials because of their unusual electronic properties. Particularly intriguing are the so-called charged walls where a polarity mismatch causes local, diverging electrostatic potentials requiring charge compensation and hence a change in the electronic structure. These walls can exhibit significantly enhanced conductivity and serve as a circuit path. The development of all-domain-wall devices, however, also requires walls with controllable output to emulate electronic nano-components such as diodes and transistors. Here we demonstrate electric-field control of the electronic transport at ferroelectric domain walls. We reversibly switch from resistive to conductive behaviour at charged walls in semiconducting ErMnO
3
. We relate the transition to the formation—and eventual activation—of an inversion layer that acts as the channel for the charge transport. The findings provide new insight into the domain-wall physics in ferroelectrics and foreshadow the possibility to design elementary digital devices for all-domain-wall circuitry.
Electric-field control of the conductivity of domain walls in ferroelectric ErMnO
3
has been demonstrated. Reversible switching between conducting and insulating states is attributed to an inversion layer, which provides a channel for conduction. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 1476-1122 1476-4660 |
DOI: | 10.1038/nmat4878 |