journal article·2009-03Open access

Conduction at domain walls in oxide multiferroics

J. Seidel, L. W. Martin, Q. He, Q. Zhan, Y.-H. Chu, A. Rother, M. E. Hawkridge, P. Maksymovych, P. Yu, M. Gajek, N. Balke, S. V. Kalinin, S. Gemming, F. Wang, G. Catalan, J. F. Scott, N. A. Spaldin, J. Orenstein, R. Ramesh

Nature Materials· Volume 8· Issue 3

Abstract

Domain walls may play an important role in future electronic devices, given their small size as well as the fact that their location can be controlled. Here, we report the observation of room-temperature electronic conductivity at ferroelectric domain walls in the insulating multiferroic BiFeO(3). The origin and nature of the observed conductivity are probed using a combination of conductive atomic force microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and first-principles density functional computations. Our analyses indicate that the conductivity correlates with structurally driven changes in both the electrostatic potential and the local electronic structure, which shows a decrease in the bandgap at the domain wall. Additionally, we demonstrate the potential for device applications of such conducting nanoscale features.
Source: europepmc · Quality: candidate unverified · Source record ↗

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Multiferroics and related materials · Ferroelectric and Piezoelectric Materials · Dielectric properties of ceramics

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

References (36)

Show source-provided references
1. Tsuda, N., Nasu, K., Yanase, A. & Siratori, K. Electronic Conduction in Oxides (Springer, 2000).10.1007/978-3-662-04011-9 ↗
2. Imada, M., Fujimori, A. & Tokura, Y. Metal–insulator transitions. Rev. Mod. Phys. 70, 1039–1263 (1998).
3. Spaldin, N. A. & Fiebig, M. The renaissance of magnetoelectric multiferroics. Science 309, 391–392 (2005).10.1126/science.1113357 ↗
4. Eerenstein, W., Mathur, N. D. & Scott, J. F. Multiferroic and magnetoelectric materials. Nature 442, 759–765 (2006).10.1038/nature05023 ↗
5. Cheong, S.-W. & Mostovoy, M. Multiferroics: A magnetic twist for ferroelectricity. Nature Mater. 6, 13–20 (2007).10.1038/nmat1804 ↗
6. Ramesh, R. & Spaldin, N. A. Multiferroics: Progress and prospects in thin films. Nature Mater. 6, 21–29 (2007).10.1038/nmat1805 ↗
7. Roytburd, A. Elastic domains and polydomain phases in solids. Phase Transit. 45, 1–34 (1993).10.1080/01411599308203516 ↗
8. Thomas, L. et al. Resonant amplification of magnetic domain-wall motion by a train of current pulses. Science 315, 1553–1556 (2007).10.1126/science.1137662 ↗
9. Přívratská, J. & Janovec, V. Pyromagnetic domain walls connecting antiferromagnetic non-ferroelastic magnetoelectric domains. Ferroelectrics 204, 321–331 (1997).10.1080/00150199708222212 ↗
10. Přívratská, J. & Janovec, V. Spontaneous polarization and/or magnetization in non-ferroelastic domain walls: Symmetry predictions. Ferroelectrics 222, 23–32 (1999).10.1080/00150199908014794 ↗
11. Goltsev, V. et al. Structure and interaction of antiferromagnetic domain walls in hexagonal YMnO3 . Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 177204 (2003).10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.177204 ↗
12. Mostovoy, M. Ferroelectricity in spiral magnets. Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 067601 (2006).10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.067601 ↗
13. Aird, A. & Salje, E. K. H. Sheet superconductivity in twin walls: Experimental evidence of WO3−x . J. Phys. Condens. Matter 10, L377–L380 (1998).10.1088/0953-8984/10/22/003 ↗
14. Bartels, M. et al. Impurity-induced resistivity of ferroelastic domain walls in doped lead phosphate. J. Phys. Condens. Matter 15, 957–962 (2003).10.1088/0953-8984/15/6/322 ↗
15. Zubko, P. et al. Strain-gradient-induced polarization in SrTiO3 single crystals. Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 167601 (2007).10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.167601 ↗
16. Kubel, F. & Schmid, H. Structure of a ferroelectric and ferroelastic monodomain crystal of the perovskite BiFeO3 . Acta Crystallogr. B 46, 698–702 (1990).10.1107/S0108768190006887 ↗
17. Lebeugle, D. et al. Very large spontaneous electric polarization in BiFeO3 single crystals at room temperature and its evolution under cycling fields. Appl. Phys. Lett. 91, 022907 (2007).10.1063/1.2753390 ↗
18. Streiffer, S. K. et al. Domain patterns in epitaxial rhombohedral ferroelectric films. I. Geometry and experiments. J. Appl. Phys. 83, 2742–2753 (1998).10.1063/1.366632 ↗
19. Zavaliche, F. et al. Multiferroic BiFeO3 films: Domain structure and polarization dynamics. Phase Transit. 79, 991–1017 (2006).10.1080/01411590601067144 ↗
20. Béa, H. et al. Influence of parasitic phases on the properties of BiFeO3 epitaxial thin films. Appl. Phys. Lett. 87, 072508 (2005).10.1063/1.2009808 ↗
21. Cruz, M. P. et al. Strain control of domain-wall stability in epitaxial BiFeO3 (110) films. Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 217601 (2007).10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.217601 ↗
22. Meyer, B. & Vanderbilt, D. Ab initio study of ferroelectric domain walls in PbTiO3 . Phys. Rev. B 65, 104111 (2002).10.1103/PhysRevB.65.104111 ↗
23. Stemmer, S., Streiffer, S. K., Ernst, F. & Rühle, M. Atomistic structure of 90∘ domain walls in ferroelectric PbTiO3 thin-films. Phil. Mag. A 71, 713–724 (1995).10.1080/01418619508244477 ↗
24. Floquet, N. & Valot, C. Ferroelectric domain walls in BaTiO3: Structural walls model interpreting fingerprints in XRPD diagrams. Ferroelectrics 234, 107–122 (1999).10.1080/00150199908225285 ↗
25. Jia, C.-L. et al. Atomic-scale study of electric dipoles near charged and uncharged domain walls in ferroelectric films. Nature Mater. 7, 57–61 (2008).10.1038/nmat2080 ↗
26. Wu, X. & Vanderbilt, D. Theory of hypothetical ferroelectric superlattices incorporating head-to-head and tail-to-tail 180 degree domain walls. Phys. Rev. B 73, 020103(R) (2006).10.1103/PhysRevB.73.020103 ↗
27. Allen, L. J., McBride, W., O’Leary, N. L. & Oxley, M. P. Exit wave reconstruction at atomic resolution. Ultramicroscopy 100, 91–104 (2004).10.1016/j.ultramic.2004.01.012 ↗
28. Ederer, C. & Spaldin, N. A. Weak ferromagnetism and magnetoelectric coupling in bismuth ferrite. Phys. Rev. B 71, 060401(R) (2005).10.1103/PhysRevB.71.060401 ↗
29. Neaton, J. B. et al. First-principles study of spontaneous polarization in multiferroic BiFeO3 . Phys. Rev. B 71, 014113 (2005).10.1103/PhysRevB.71.014113 ↗
30. Li, J. F. et al. Dramatically enhanced polarization in (001), (101), and (111) BiFeO3 thin films due to epitiaxial-induced transitions. Appl. Phys. Lett. 84, 5261 (2004).10.1063/1.1764944 ↗
31. Ravindran, P. et al. Theoretical investigation of magnetoelectric behavior in BiFeO3 . Phys. Rev. B 74, 224412 (2006).10.1103/PhysRevB.74.224412 ↗
32. Lebeugle, D. et al. Electric-field induced spin flop in BiFeO3 single crystals at room temperature. Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 227602 (2008).10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.227602 ↗
33. Coene, W. M. J., Thust, A., Op de Beeck, M. & Van Dyck, D. Maximum-likelihood method for focus-variation image reconstruction in high resolution transmission electron microscopy. Ultramicroscopy 64, 109–135 (1996).10.1016/0304-3991(96)00010-1 ↗
34. Thust, A., Coene, W. M. J., Op de Beeck, M. & Van Dyck, D. Focal-series reconstruction in HRTEM: Simulation studies on non-periodic objects. Ultramicroscopy 64, 211–230 (1996).10.1016/0304-3991(96)00011-3 ↗
35. Kresse, G. & Furthmüller, J. Efficient iterative schemes for ab initio total-energy calculations using a plane-wave basis set. Phys. Rev. B 54, 11169–11186 (1996).10.1103/PhysRevB.54.11169 ↗
36. Anisimov, V. I., Aryasetiawan, F. & Liechtenstein, A. I. First-principles calculations of the electronic structure and spectra of strongly correlated systems: The LDA+U method. J. Phys. Condens. Matter 9, 767–808 (1997).10.1088/0953-8984/9/4/002 ↗