Journal article
Improved polarization retention in epitaxial BiFeO3 thin films induced by strain relaxation
Applied surface science, v 635, 157703
30 Oct 2023
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
• This study focuses on investigating the impact of lattice mismatch strain (LMS) on the polarization retention of ferroelectric BiFeO3 thin films.
• The research findings reveal that LMS plays a crucial role in driving the formation of preferred polarization.
• The study suggests that the mechanism behind the reduced polarization retention is intimately connected with the built-in field induced by oxygen vacancies-relevant space charge alignment.
• The results propose a straightforward approach to enhance the retention of switched polarization by charge injection of electrons to fully screen the built-in field, paving the way for the development of reliable ferroelectric memories with excellent retention properties.
This study investigated the impact of lattice mismatch strain (LMS) on the polarization retention of epitaxial ferroelectric BiFeO3 (BFO) thin films. The application of varying degrees of LMS on the BFO films was achieved by tuning the film thickness, which was verified through X-ray diffraction and reciprocal space mapping. As the strain was gradually eliminated, the film demonstrated a more saturated hysteresis loop with a reduced negative coercive electric field. Additionally, a significant increase in polarization retention was observed with increasing film thickness, strongly indicating the crucial role of LMS in driving the formation of preferred polarization, which is intimately connected with the built-in field induced by oxygen vacancies-relevant space charge alignment. Moreover, the anisotropic LMS state of the BFO films was utilized to horizontally reverse local polarization in a sub-micrometer scale, revealing that strain accelerates the back-switching of polarization to eliminate the artificially created ferroelastic domain walls. To counteract the strain effect, charge injection of electrons was proposed to enhance the retention of switched polarization by fully suppressing the built-in field and pinning the artificially created domain walls. The findings provide valuable insights into the impact of strain on polarization retention for the development of ferroelectric memories.
Metrics
1 Record Views
Details
- Title
- Improved polarization retention in epitaxial BiFeO3 thin films induced by strain relaxation
- Creators
- Xiaojun Tan - Fudan UniversityXingrui Sun - ShanghaiTech UniversityJun Jiang - Fudan UniversityDongfang Chen - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- Applied surface science, v 635, 157703
- Publisher
- Elsevier B.V
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:001018199600001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85161290609
- Other Identifier
- 991021861286504721
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Chemistry, Physical
- Materials Science, Coatings & Films
- Physics, Applied
- Physics, Condensed Matter