journal article·2019-06Open access

Deterministic optical control of room temperature multiferroicity in BiFeO3 thin films

Yi-De Liou, Yu-You Chiu, Ryan Thomas Hart, Chang-Yang Kuo, Yen-Lin Huang, Yuan-Chih Wu, Rajesh V. Chopdekar, Heng-Jui Liu, Arata Tanaka, Chien-Te Chen, Chun-Fu Chang, Liu Hao Tjeng, Ye Cao, Valanoor Nagarajan, Ying-Hao Chu, Yi-Chun Chen, Jan-Chi Yang

Nature Materials· Volume 18· Issue 6

Abstract

Controlling ferroic orders (ferroelectricity, ferromagnetism and ferroelasticity) by optical methods is a significant challenge due to the large mismatch in energy scales between the order parameter coupling strengths and the incident photons. Here, we demonstrate an approach to manipulate multiple ferroic orders in an epitaxial mixed-phase BiFeO3 thin film at ambient temperature via laser illumination. Phase-field simulations indicate that a light-driven flexoelectric effect allows the targeted formation of ordered domains. We also achieved precise sequential laser writing and erasure of different domain patterns, which demonstrates a deterministic optical control of multiferroicity at room temperature. As ferroic orders directly influence susceptibility and conductivity in complex materials, our results not only shed light on the optical control of multiple functionalities, but also suggest possible developments for optoelectronics and related applications.
Source: europepmc · Quality: candidate unverified · Source record ↗

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Multiferroics and related materials · Ferroelectric and Piezoelectric Materials · Acoustic Wave Resonator Technologies

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

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