Conduction at domain walls in oxide multiferroics

Seidel, J. and Martin, L. W. and He, Q. and Zhan, Q. and Chu, Y.-H. and Rother, A. and Hawkridge, M. E. and Maksymovych, P. and Yu, P. and Gajek, M. and Balke, N. and Kalinin, S. V. and Gemming, S. and Wang, F. and Catalan, G. and Scott, J. F. and Spaldin, N. A. and Orenstein, J. and Ramesh, R. (2009) Conduction at domain walls in oxide multiferroics. Nature Materials, 8 (3). p. 229. ISSN 14761122 DOI 10.1038/NMAT2373

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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 BiFeO3. 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.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	08AREP; IA57;
Subjects:	03 - Mineral Sciences
Divisions:	03 - Mineral Sciences
Journal or Publication Title:	Nature Materials
Volume:	8
Page Range:	p. 229
Identification Number:	10.1038/NMAT2373
Depositing User:	Sarah Humbert
Date Deposited:	06 Mar 2009 09:23
Last Modified:	23 Jul 2013 09:54
URI:	http://eprints.esc.cam.ac.uk/id/eprint/859

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