Ferroelectric polarization reversal tuned by magnetic field in a ferroelectric BiFeO₃/Nb-doped SrTiO₃ heterojunction

Abstract

Interfacial resistive switching of a ferroelectric semiconductor heterojunction is highly advantageous for the newly developed ferroelectric memristors. Moreover, the interfacial state in the ferroelectric semiconductor heterojunction can be gradually modified by polarization reversal, which may give rise to continuously tunable resistive switching behavior. In this work, the interfacial state of a ferroelectric BiFeO₃/Nb-doped SrTiO₃ junction was modulated by ferroelectric polarization reversal. The dynamics of surface screening charges on the BiFeO₃ layer was also investigated by surface potential measurements, and the decay of the surface potential could be speeded up by the magnetic field. Moreover, ferroelectric polarization reversal of the BiFeO₃ layer was tuned by the magnetic field. This finding could provide a method to enhance the ferroelectric and electrical properties of ferroelectric BiFeO₃ films by tuning the magnetic field.

Keywords

ferroelectric semiconductor heterojunction / ferroelectric polarization reversal / pulsed laser deposition / Kelvin probe force microscopy

References

[1] J. Wang, J. B. Neaton, H. Zheng, V. Nagarajan, S. B. Ogale, B. Liu, D. Viehland, V. Vaithyanathan, D. G. Schlom, U. V. Waghmare, N. A. Spaldin, K. M. Rabe, M. Wuttig, and R. Ramesh, Epitaxial BiFeO₃ multiferroic thin film heterostructures, Science 299(5613), 1719 (2003)

[2] S. H. Baek, C. M. Folkman, J. W. Park, S. Lee, C. W. Bark, T. Tybell, and C. B. Eom, The nature of polarization fatigue in BiFeO₃, Adv. Mater. 23(14), 1621 (2011)

[3] H. Guo, R. Zhao, K. Jin, L. Gu, D. Xiao, Z. Yang, X. Li, L. Wang, X. He, J. Gu, Q. Wan, C. Wang, H. Lu, C. Ge, M. He, and G. Yang, Interfacial-strain-induced structural and polarization evolutions in epitaxial multiferroic BiFeO₃ (001) thin films, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 7(4), 2944 (2015)

[4] L. Wang, K. J. Jin, J. X. Gu, C. Ma, X. He, J. Zhang, C. Wang, Y. Feng, Q. Wan, J. A. Shi, L. Gu, M. He, H. B. Lu, and G. Z. Yang, A new non-destructive readout by using photo-recovered surface potential contrast, Sci. Rep. 4(1), 6980 (2015)

[5] J. X. Gu, K. J. Jin, L. Wang, X. He, H. Z. Guo, C. Wang, M. He, and G. Z. Yang, Long-time relaxation of photo-induced influence on BiFeO₃ thin films, J. Appl. Phys. 118(20), 204103 (2015)

[6] T. Yang, X. Zhang, B. Chen, H. Guo, K. Jin, X. Wu, X. Gao, Z. Li, C. Wang, and X. Li, The evidence of giant surface flexoelectric field in (111) oriented BiFeO₃ thin film, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 9(6), 5600 (2017)

[7] B. C. Jeon, D. Lee, M. H. Lee, S. M. Yang, S. C. Chae, T. K. Song, S. D. Bu, J. S. Chung, J. G. Yoon, and T. W. Noh, Flexoelectric effect in the reversal of selfpolarization and associated changes in the electronic functional properties of BiFeO₃ thin films, Adv. Mater. 25(39), 5643 (2013)

[8] R. Guo, L. You, M. Motapothula, Z. Zhang, M. B. H. Breese, L. Chen, D. Wu, and J. L. Wang, Influence of target composition and deposition temperature on the domain structure of BiFeO₃ thin films, AIP Adv. 2(4), 042104 (2012)

[9] J. C. Yang, Q. He, P. Yu, and Y. H. Chu, BiFeO₃ thin films: A playground for exploring electric-field control of multifunctionalities,Annu. Rev. Mater. Res. 45(1), 249 (2015)

[10] Y. Yang, I. C. Infante, B. Dkhil, and L. Bellaiche, Strain effects on multiferroic BiFeO₃ films, Comp. Rend. Phys. 16(2), 193 (2015)

[11] Z. Gao, X. Huang, P. Li, L. Wang, L. Wei, W. Zhang, and H. Guo, Reversible resistance switching of 2D electron gas at LaAlO₃/SrTiO₃ heterointerface, Adv. Mater. Interfaces 5(8), 1701565 (2018)

[12] X. Huang, Z. Gao, P. Li, L. Wang, X. Liu, W. Zhang, and H. Guo, Resistance change effect in SrTiO₃/Si(001) isotype heterojunction,J. Appl. Phys. 123(8), 084502 (2018)

[13] P. Sharma, Y. Heo, B. K. Jang, Y. Y. Liu, J. Y. Li, C. H. Yang, and J. Seidel, Structural and electronic transformation pathways in morphotropic BiFeO₃, Sci. Rep. 6(1), 32347 (2016)

[14] C. Wang, K. J. Jin, Z. T. Xu, L. Wang, C. Ge, H. B. Lu, H. Z. Guo, M. He, and G. Z. Yang, Switchable diode effect and ferroelectric resistive switching in epitaxial BiFeO₃ thin films, Appl. Phys. Lett. 98(19), 192901 (2011)

[15] C. Beekman, W. Siemons, M. Chi, N. Balke, J. Y. Howe, T. Z. Ward, P. Maksymovych, J. D. Budai, J. Z. Tischler, R. Xu, W. Liu, and H. M. Christen, Ferroelectric self-poling, switching, and monoclinic domain configuration in BiFeO₃ thin films, Adv. Funct. Mater. 26(28), 5166 (2016)

[16] Y. L. Huang, W. S. Chang, C. N. Van, H. J. Liu, K. A. Tsai, J. W. Chen, H. H. Kuo, W. Y. Tzeng, Y. C. Chen, C. L. Wu, C. W. Luo, Y. J. Hsu, and Y. H. Chu, Tunable photoelectrochemical performance of Au/BiFeO₃ heterostructure, Nanoscale 8(34), 15795 (2016)

[17] J. H. Lee, I. Fina, X. Marti, Y. H. Kim, D. Hesse, and M. Alexe, Spintronic functionality of BiFeO₃ domain walls,Adv. Mater. 26(41), 7078 (2014)

[18] Y. Zhou, L. Fang, L. You, P. Ren, L. Wang, and J. L. Wang, Photovoltaic property of domain engineered epitaxial BiFeO₃ films, Appl. Phys. Lett. 105(25), 252903 (2014)

[19] F. Bi, M. Huang, H. Lee, C. B. Eom, P. Irvin, and J. Levy, LaAlO3 thickness window for electronically controlled magnetism at LaAlO₃/SrTiO₃ heterointerfaces, Appl. Phys. Lett. 107(8), 082402 (2015)

[20] M. Trassin, G. D. Luca, S. Manz, and M. Fiebig, Probing ferroelectric domain engineering in BiFeO₃ thin films by second harmonic generation, Adv. Mater. 27(33), 4871 (2015)

[21] Q. Li, Y. Cao, P. Yu, R. K. Vasudevan, N. Laanait, A. Tselev, F. Xue, L. Q. Chen, P. Maksymovych, S. V. Kalinin, and N. Balke, Giant elastic tunability in strained BiFeO3 near an electrically induced phase transition, Nat. Commun. 6(1), 8985 (2015)

[22] H. Guo, Q. Li, Z. Yang, K. J. Jin, C. Ge, L. Gu, X. He, X. Li, R. Zhao, Q. Wan, J. Wang, M. He, C. Wang, H. Lu, Y. Yang, and G. Yang, Manipulating magnetoelectric properties by interfacial coupling in La_0.3Sr_0.7MnO₃/Ba_0.7Sr_0.3TiO₃ superlattices,Sci. Rep. 7(1), 7693 (2017)

[23] R. Huang, H. C. Ding, W. I. Liang, Y. C. Gao, X. D. Tang, Q. He, C. G. Duan, Z. Zhu, J. Chu, C. A. J. Fisher, T. Hirayama, Y. Ikuhara, and Y. H. Chu, Atomic-scale visualization of polarization pinning and relaxation at coherent BiFeO₃/LaAlO₃ interfaces, Adv. Funct. Mater. 24(6), 793 (2014)

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature