Abstract
Ferroelectric materials are characterized by a spontaneous polarization, which can be reoriented with an applied electric field. The switching between polarized domains is mediated by nanoscale defects. Understanding the role of defects in ferroelectric switching is critical for practical applications such as non-volatile memories. This is especially the case for ferroelectric nanostructures and thin films in which the entire switching volume is proximate to a defective surface. Here we report the nanoscale ferroelectric switching of a tetragonal PbZr0.2Ti0.8O3 thin film under an applied electric field using in situ transmission electron microscopy. We found that the intrinsic electric fields formed at ferroelectric/electrode interfaces determine the nucleation sites and growth rates of ferroelectric domains and the orientation and mobility of domain walls, whereas dislocations exert a weak pinning force on domain wall motion.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 591 |
| Journal | Nature Communications |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2011 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
This work was supported by the Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering, under the grant DE-FG02-07ER46416 and partially by the National Science Foundation under grants DMR-0907191, DMR-0820404, and DMR-0723032 (TEM instrument). The work at University of Wisconsin-Madison was supported by the Army Research Office (ARO) under Grant No. W911NF-10-1-0362. The work at Cornell University was supported by ARO through agreement W911NF-08-2-0032. The work at Peking University was support by MOST and NSF of China (Grant No. 2009DFA01290). We acknowledge the National Center for Electron Microscopy at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for their support under the DOE grant DE-AC02-05CH11231 for user facilities.