The conductive domain wall (CDW) is extensively investigated in ferroelectrics, which can be considered as a quasi-two-dimensional reconfigurable conducting channel embedded into an insulating material. Therefore, it is highly important for the application of ferroelectric nanoelectronics. Hitherto, most CDW investigations are restricted in oxides, and limited work has been reported in non-oxides to the contrary. Here, by successfully synthesizing the non-oxide ferroelectric Sn2P2S6 single crystal, we observed and confirmed the domain wall conductivity by using different scanning probe techniques which origins from the nature of inclined domain walls. Moreover, the domains separated by CDW also exhibit distinguishable electrical conductivity due to the interfacial polarization charge with opposite signs. The result provides a novel platform for understanding electrical conductivity behavior of the domains and domain walls in non-oxide ferroelectrics.
Based on genetic evolution algorithm, universal structure predictor USPEX assists to explore the most stable structure from Na+ substituting Ca2+ under variable concentration, for p type transparent conductive oxide application. The study finds 2 atoms of NaCa maintain the octahedral packing and cubic phase without the presence of oxygen vacancy, but the electron loss causes in fermi level entering into valence band, realizing p type TCOs character. While others still remain insulator character due to the compensation of oxygen vacancy. Applying Al3+ substituting Ca2+ achieve the fermi level i…
Ferroelectric anomalies in most classical ferroelectric materials such as BaTiO3 (BT) and related compounds tend to become diffuse and eventually vanish when the grain size decreases. This has led to question the very existence of ferroelectricity for very small particles. However there are also reports in the literature of ultra-high values of permittivity when specific processes or doping are performed, for instance in the BT-family, or in the CaCu3Ti4O12- family and interpretations using (IBLC) have been proposed. We have considered these effects in the framework of a core-shell model of ce…
Thermally and Electrically Conductive Nanopapers from Reduced Graphene Oxide: effect of nanoflakes thermal annealing on the film structure and properties
Design of a low band gap oxide ferroelectric: Bi$_6$Ti$_4$O$_{17}$
通过对假设化合物Bi $_6$ Ti $_4$ O $_{17}$的第一性原理研究，描述和说明了一种基于电荷不平衡获得低带隙氧化物铁电体的策略，该化合物是铁电体Bi $_4$ Ti $_3$ O $_{12}$的交替堆叠。我们发现，这种化合物是铁电体，类似于Bi $_4$ Ti $_3$ O $_{12}$，但具有降低的极化。重要的是，计算的电子结构与最近开发的功能的反和Blaha产生一个大大减少的带隙为1.83 eV的这种材料相比，Bi $_4$ Ti $_3$ O $_{12}$。因此，预测Bi $_6$ Ti $_4$ O $_{17}$是低带隙铁电材料。
Decoupling Trap States in Amorphous Oxide Semiconductor Transistor Using a Conductive-Semiconducting-Conductive MOS Structure
College of Integrated Circuits, Zhejiang University（浙江大学集成电路学院）；Department of ECE, National University of Singapore（新加坡国立大学电子与计算机工程系）；Zhejiang ICsprout Semiconductor Co., Ltd（浙江ICsprout半导体有限公司）
Ferroelectric hafnium zirconium oxide (HZO) thin films show significant promise for applications in ferroelectric random-access memory, ferroelectric field-effect transistors, and ferroelectric tunneling junctions. However, there are shortcomings in understanding ferroelectric switching, which is crucial in the operation of these devices. Here a computational model based on phase field method is developed to simulate the switching behavior of polycrystalline HZO thin films. Furthermore, we introduce a novel approach to optimize the effective Landau coefficients describing the free energy of HZ…
Cubic structure is one of the most commonly found structures for oxides at high temperature. As the temperature is lowered only a handful of these oxides exhibit ferroelectricity which is rather surprising. In this paper, we use the example of YCrO3 (YCO), an incipient ferroelectric material to show that in most oxides there are two competing phenomenon -onset of ferroelectricity due to rotation of CrO6 octahedra and displacement of Y atom leading to suppression of ferroelectricity. This competition reveals that while the octahedral rotations favor a lower symmetry state, the Y atom displaceme…
Atomically sharp domain walls (DWs) in ferroelectrics are considered as an ideal platform to realize easy-to-reconfigure nanoelectronic building blocks, created, manipulated and erased by external fields. However, conductive DWs have been exclusively observed in oxides, where DW mobility and conductivity is largely influenced by stoichiometry and defects. In contrast, we here report on conductive DWs in the non-oxide ferroelectric GaV$_4$S$_8$, where charge carriers are provided intrinsically by multivalent V$_4$ molecular clusters. We show that this new mechanism gives rise to DWs composed of…
Atomic-scale understanding of HfO2 ferroelectricity is important to help address many challenges in developing reliable and high-performance ferroelectric HfO2 (fe-HfO2) based devices. Though investigated from different angles, a factor that is real device-relevant and clearly deserves more attention has largely been overlooked by previous research, namely, the fe-HfO2/dielectric interface. Here, we investigate the electronic structures of several typical interfaces formed between ultrathin fe-HfO2 and oxide dielectrics in the sub-3-nm region. We find that interface formation introduces strong…
The momentum-dependent Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-splitting has gained much attention for its highly promising applications in spintronics. In the present work, ab initio density functional theory calculations are performed to study the spin-splitting effect in ferroelectric oxide perovskite KIO3. Our calculations are additionally supported by symmetry adapted two-band k.p Hamiltonian. Non-negligible spin-splitting effect is observed at conduction band minimum (CBm) and valence band maximum (VBM) for rhombohedral R3m and R3c phases. Linear Rashba terms successfully explain the splitting at VB…
We propose a device model that elucidates the role of domain walls in the photovoltaic effect in multi-domain ferroelectric perovskites. The model accounts for the intricate interplay between ferroelectric polarization, space charges, photo-generation and electronic transport. When applied to bismuth ferrite, results show a significant electric potential step across both 71-degree and 109-degree domain walls, which in turn contributes to the photovoltaic (PV) effect. We also find a strong correlation between polarization and oxygen octahedra tilts, which indicates the nontrivial role of the la…
Two-dimensional (2D) ferroelectricity has attracted extensive attention since its discovery in the monolayers of van der Waals materials. Here we show that 2D ferroelectricity induced by octahedral rotation distortion is widely present in the perovskite bilayer system through first-principles calculations. The perovskite tolerance factor plays a crucial role in the lattice dynamics and ground-state structure of the perovskite monolayers and bilayers, thus providing an important indicator for screening this hybrid improper ferroelectricity. Generally, the ferroelectric switching via an orthorho…
Polar discontinuities and structural changes at oxide interfaces can give rise to a large variety of electronic and ionic phenomena. Related effects have been intensively studied in epitaxial systems, including ferroelectric domain walls and interfaces in superlattices. Here, we investigate the relation between polar discontinuities and the local chemistry at grain boundaries in polycrystalline ferroelectric ErMnO3. Using orientation mapping and different scanning probe microscopy techniques, we demonstrate that the polycrystalline material develops charged grain boundaries with enhanced elect…
The second and third order nonlinear susceptibilities of the ferroelectric oxides LiNbO$_3$, LiTaO$_3$, and KNbO$_3$ are calculated from first principles. Two distinct methodologies are compared, one approach is based on a perturbative approach within the frequency-domain, another on the time-evolution of the electric polarization. The frequency dependence of the second harmonic coefficients of the ferroelectric phase of LiNbO$_3$ calculated within the two approaches is in excellent agreement. This is further validated by experimental data for LiNbO$_3$ and LiTaO$_3$, measured for an incident …
Prediction of properties from composition is a fundamental goal of materials science and can greatly accelerate development of functional materials. It is particularly relevant for ferroelectric perovskite solid solutions where compositional variation is a primary tool for materials design. To advance beyond the commonly used Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire and density functional theory methods that despite their power are not predictive, we elucidate the key interactions that govern ferroelectrics using 5-atom bulk unit cells and non-ground-state defect-like ferroelectric domain walls as a simple …
Advances in complex oxide heteroepitaxy have highlighted the enormous potential of utilizing strain engineering via lattice mismatch to control ferroelectricity in thin-film heterostructures. This approach, however, lacks the ability to produce large and continuously variable strain states, thus limiting the potential for designing and tuning the desired properties of ferroelectric films. Here, we observe and explore dynamic strain-induced ferroelectricity in SrTiO$_3$ by laminating freestanding oxide films onto a stretchable polymer substrate. Using a combination of scanning probe microscopy,…
Ferroelectric Rashba semiconductors (FERSC), in which Rashba spin-splitting can be controlled and reversed by an electric field, have recently emerged as a new class of functional materials useful for spintronic applications. The development of concrete devices based on such materials is, however, still hampered by the lack of robust FERSC compounds. Here, we show that the coexistence of large spontaneous polarisation and sizeable spin-orbit coupling is not sufficient to have strong Rashba effects and clarify why simple ferroelectric oxide perovskites with transition metal at the B-site are ty…
Ferroelectric oxides have attracted much attention due to their wide range of applications, especially in electronic devices such as nonvolatile memories and tunnel junctions. As a result, the monolithic integration of these materials into silicon technology and its nanostructuration to develop alternative cost-effective processes are among the central points in current technology. In this work, we used a chemical route to obtain nanowire thin films of a novel Sr1+δMn8O16 (SMO) hollandite-type manganese oxide on silicon. Scanning transmission electron microscopy combined with crystallographic …
Importance of strain reduction in improvement of optical transmission and conductance in Si4+ doped ZnO: a probable new moisture resistant Transparent Conductive Oxide
We experimentally investigate transport properties of a hybrid structure, which consists of a thin single crystal SnSe flake on a top of 5~$μ$m spaced Au leads. The structure initially is in highly-conductive state, while it can be switched to low-conductive one at high currents due to the Joule heating of the sample, which should be identified as $α$-$Pnma$ -- $β$-$Cmcm$ diffusionless martensitic phase transition in SnSe. For highly-conductive state, there is significant hysteresis in $dI/dV(V)$ curves at low biases, so the sample conductance depends on the sign of the applied bias change. Th…
The first two-dimensional (2D) polymorphs of antimony dioxide, namely, $γ$-Sb$_2$O$_4$ and $δ$-Sb$_2$O$_4$, are predicted using the evolutionary algorithm combined with first-principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Out-of-plane ferroelectricity is found in $γ$-Sb$_2$O$_4$, while in-plane ferroelectricity is found in $δ$-Sb$_2$O$_4$. The predicted dipole moments of $γ$-Sb$_2$O$_4$ and $δ$-Sb$_2$O$_4$ phases are 36.63 and 14.96 eÅ, respectively, implying that they can be good candidates for making ferroelectric devices. The calculations show that doping with other group V elemen…
The temperature-dependent phase transitions in Ruddlesden-Popper oxides with perovskite bilayers have been under increased scrutiny in recent years due to the so-called hybrid improper ferroelectricity that some chemical compositions exhibit. However, little is currently understood about the hydrostatic pressure dependence of these phase transitions. Herein we present the results of a high-pressure powder synchrotron X-ray diffraction experiment and $ab~initio$ calculations on the bilayered Ruddlesden-Popper phases Ca$_{3}$Mn$_{2}$O$_{7}$ and Ca$_{3}$Ti$_{2}$O$_{7}$. In both compounds we obser…
The observation of ferroelectric, ferromagnetic and ferroelastic phases in thin films of binary oxides attract the broad interest of scientists and engineers. However, the theoretical consideration of observed behaviour physical nature was performed mainly for HfO2 thin films from the first principles, and in the framework of Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire (LGD) phenomenological approach with a special attention to the role of oxygen vacancies in both cases. Allowing for generality of the LGD theory we applied it to the group of binary oxides in this work. The calculations have been performed in t…
The polarization and strain response of ferroelectric materials at fields below the macroscopic coercive field is of a paramount importance for the operation of many electronic devices. The response of real ferroelectric and related materials is in general complex and difficult to interpret. The reason for this is that many processes in a ferroelectric material contribute to its properties, often concurrently. Examples include motion of ferroelectric and ferroelastic domains, presence of domains within domains, dynamics of different types of polar nano-entities, interaction of polar nano-entit…
Using ultrashort optical pulses to couple ferroelectric and ferromagnetic order in an oxide heterostructure
利用时间分辨二次谐波（SHG）技术研究铁电/铁磁氧化物异质结构，实现了超快时间尺度上电磁序耦合的全光检测和控制.我们利用飞秒光脉冲改变Ba $_{0.1}$ Sr $_{0.9}$ TiO $_{3}$（BSTO）/La $_{0.7}$ Ca $_{0.3}$ MnO $_{3}$（LCMO）异质结的自旋取向，并利用二次谐波选择性地探测铁电响应。在这种异质结构中，泵浦脉冲光激发LCMO中的非平衡准粒子，这些准粒子在几十皮秒的时间尺度上经历自旋晶格弛豫之前与声子快速相互作用。这减少了LCMO中的自旋-自旋相互作用，通过磁致伸缩对BSTO施加应力。然后，这通过压电效应在比从LCMO到BSTO的激光诱导热扩散快得多的时间尺度上修改FE极化。因此，我们已经证明了超快间接磁电效应介导的FE/FM异质结构通过弹性耦合，与时间尺度主要由自旋晶格弛豫FM层。
A monolayer of ZrO$_{2}$ has recently been grown on the Si(001) surface and shown to have ferroelectric properties, which signifies the realization of the lowest possible thickness in ferroelectric oxides [M. Dogan et al., Nano Lett., 18 (1) (2018)]. In our previous computational study, we reported on the multiple (meta)stable configurations of ZrO$_{2}$ monolayers on Si, and how switching between a pair of differently polarized configurations may explain the observed ferroelectric behavior of these films [M. Dogan and S. Ismail-Beigi, arXiv:1902.01022 (2019)]. In the current study, we conduct…
