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Xu R, Liu S, Saremi S, Gao R, Wang JJ, Hong Z, Lu H, Ghosh A, Pandya S, Bonturim E, Chen ZH, Chen LQ, Rappe AM, Martin LW. Kinetic control of tunable multi-state switching in ferroelectric thin films. Nat Commun 2019; 10:1282. [PMID: 30894533 PMCID: PMC6427024 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09207-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2018] [Accepted: 02/20/2019] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Deterministic creation of multiple ferroelectric states with intermediate values of polarization remains challenging due to the inherent bi-stability of ferroelectric switching. Here we show the ability to select any desired intermediate polarization value via control of the switching pathway in (111)-oriented PbZr0.2Ti0.8O3 films. Such switching phenomena are driven by kinetic control of the volume fraction of two geometrically different domain structures which are generated by two distinct switching pathways: one direct, bipolar-like switching and another multi-step switching process with the formation of a thermodynamically-stable intermediate twinning structure. Such control of switching pathways is enabled by the competition between elastic and electrostatic energies which favors different types of ferroelastic switching that can occur. Overall, our work demonstrates an alternative approach that transcends the inherent bi-stability of ferroelectrics to create non-volatile, deterministic, and repeatedly obtainable multi-state polarization without compromising other important properties, and holds promise for non-volatile multi-state functional applications. The use of ferroeletric materials for multi-state device applications is still challenging. Here, the authors present a mechanism to stabilize non-volatile polarization states by populating volume fractions of two domain structures in PbZr0.2Ti0.8O3 via kinetic control of switching pathways.
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Affiliation(s)
- R Xu
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - S Liu
- Extreme Materials Initiative, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution for Science, Washington, DC, 20015, USA
| | - S Saremi
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - R Gao
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - J J Wang
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, 16802, USA
| | - Z Hong
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, 16802, USA
| | - H Lu
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - A Ghosh
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - S Pandya
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - E Bonturim
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Z H Chen
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.,School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, 518055, Shenzhen, China
| | - L Q Chen
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, 16802, USA
| | - A M Rappe
- Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104-6323, USA
| | - L W Martin
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA. .,Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
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