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Abramov A, Slautin B, Pryakhina V, Shur V, Kholkin A, Alikin D. Spatially-Resolved Study of the Electronic Transport and Resistive Switching in Polycrystalline Bismuth Ferrite. SENSORS (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2023; 23:526. [PMID: 36617132 PMCID: PMC9823478 DOI: 10.3390/s23010526] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/12/2022] [Revised: 12/25/2022] [Accepted: 12/29/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Ferroelectric materials attract much attention for applications in resistive memory devices due to the large current difference between insulating and conductive states and the ability of carefully controlling electronic transport via the polarization set-up. Bismuth ferrite films are of special interest due to the combination of high spontaneous polarization and antiferromagnetism, implying the possibility to provide multiple physical mechanisms for data storage and operations. Macroscopic conductivity measurements are often hampered to unambiguously characterize the electric transport, because of the strong influence of the diverse material microstructure. Here, we studied the electronic transport and resistive switching phenomena in polycrystalline bismuth ferrite using advanced conductive atomic force microscopy (CAFM) at different temperatures and electric fields. The new approach to the CAFM spectroscopy and corresponding data analysis are proposed, which allow deep insight into the material band structure at high lateral resolution. Contrary to many studies via macroscopic methods, postulating electromigration of the oxygen vacancies, we demonstrate resistive switching in bismuth ferrite to be caused by the pure electronic processes of trapping/releasing electrons and injection of the electrons by the scanning probe microscopy tip. The electronic transport was shown to be comprehensively described by the combination of the space charge limited current model, while a Schottky barrier at the interface is less important due to the presence of the built-in subsurface charge.
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Alikin D, Abramov A, Turygin A, Ievlev A, Pryakhina V, Karpinsky D, Hu Q, Jin L, Shur V, Tselev A, Kholkin A. Exploring Charged Defects in Ferroelectrics by the Switching Spectroscopy Piezoresponse Force Microscopy. SMALL METHODS 2022; 6:e2101289. [PMID: 34967150 DOI: 10.1002/smtd.202101289] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2021] [Revised: 11/15/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Monitoring the charged defect concentration at the nanoscale is of critical importance for both the fundamental science and applications of ferroelectrics. However, up-to-date, high-resolution study methods for the investigation of structural defects, such as transmission electron microscopy, X-ray tomography, etc., are expensive and demand complicated sample preparation. With an example of the lanthanum-doped bismuth ferrite ceramics, a novel method is proposed based on the switching spectroscopy piezoresponse force microscopy (SSPFM) that allows probing the electric potential from buried subsurface charged defects in the ferroelectric materials with a nanometer-scale spatial resolution. When compared with the composition-sensitive methods, such as neutron diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and local time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry, the SSPFM sensitivity to the variation of the electric potential from the charged defects is shown to be equivalent to less than 0.3 at% of the defect concentration. Additionally, the possibility to locally evaluate dynamics of the polarization screening caused by the charged defects is demonstrated, which is of significant interest for further understanding defect-mediated processes in ferroelectrics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Denis Alikin
- School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, 620000, Russia
| | - Alexander Abramov
- School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, 620000, Russia
| | - Anton Turygin
- School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, 620000, Russia
| | - Anton Ievlev
- Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, 37830, USA
| | - Victoria Pryakhina
- School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, 620000, Russia
| | - Dmitry Karpinsky
- Scientific-Practical Materials Research Centre of NAS of Belarus, Minsk, 220072, Belarus
| | - Qingyuan Hu
- Electronic Materials Research Laboratory, Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education & International Center for Dielectric Research, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, China
| | - Li Jin
- Electronic Materials Research Laboratory, Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education & International Center for Dielectric Research, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, China
| | - Vladimir Shur
- School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, 620000, Russia
| | - Alexander Tselev
- Department of Physics & CICECO, University of Aveiro, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal
| | - Andrei Kholkin
- School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, 620000, Russia
- Department of Physics & CICECO, University of Aveiro, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal
- Piezo- and Magnetoelectric Materials Research & Development Centre, Research School of Chemistry & Applied Biomedical Sciences, National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University, Tomsk, 634050, Russia
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