Functional electronic inversion layers at ferroelectric domain walls
Mundy, Julia; Schaab, Jakob; Kumagai, Yu; Cano, Andres; Stengel, Massimiliano; Krug, Ingo P.; Gottlob, Daniel G.; Doganay, Hattice; Holtz, Megan, E.; Held, Rainer; Yan, Zewu; Bourret, Edith; Schneider, Claus M.; Schlom, Darrel G.; Muller, David A.; Ramesh, Ramamoorthy; Spaldin, Nicola A.; Meier, Dennis Gerhard
Journal article, Peer reviewed
Accepted version
View/ Open
Date
2017Metadata
Show full item recordCollections
- Institutt for materialteknologi [2559]
- Publikasjoner fra CRIStin - NTNU [38679]
Original version
10.1038/NMAT4878Abstract
Ferroelectric domain walls hold great promise as functional two-dimensional materials because of their unusual electronic properties. Particularly intriguing are the so-called charged walls where a polarity mismatch causes local, diverging electrostatic potentials requiring charge compensation and hence a change in the electronic structure. These walls can exhibit significantly enhanced conductivity and serve as a circuit path. The development of all-domain-wall devices, however, also requires walls with controllable output to emulate electronic nano-components such as diodes and transistors. Here we demonstrate electric-field control of the electronic transport at ferroelectric domain walls. We reversibly switch from resistive to conductive behaviour at charged walls in semiconducting ErMnO3 . We relate the transition to the formation—and eventual activation—of an inversion layer that acts as the channel for the charge transport. The findings provide new insight into the domain-wall physics in ferroelectrics and foreshadow the possibility to design elementary digital devices for all-domain-wall circuitry.