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.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 229-234 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Nature Materials |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 2009 |
Funding
The work at Berkeley is supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences Division of the US Department of Energy under contract No DE-AC02-05CH1123. The authors from Berkeley would like to acknowledge the support of the National Center for Electron Microscopy, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. J.S. acknowledges support from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Y.H.C. would also like to acknowledge the support of the National Science Council, R.O.C., under contract No NSC 97-3114-M-009-001. A.R. and S.G. acknowledge support from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft through FOR 520 and Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst through GE 1202/5-1, and N.A.S. acknowledges support from NSF DMR Award No DMR-0605852 and the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science, UC Berkeley.