Non-volatile electric-field control of inversion symmetry
Abstrak
Electric fields typically break symmetry when applied as a stimulus to materials. Here, by forming a superlattice of BiFeO_3 and TbScO_3, it is shown that an electric field can repeatedly stabilize mixed-phase polar and antipolar BiFeO_3. Competition between ground states at phase boundaries can lead to significant changes in properties under stimuli, particularly when these ground states have different crystal symmetries. A key challenge is to stabilize and control the coexistence of symmetry-distinct phases. Using BiFeO_3 layers confined between layers of dielectric TbScO_3 as a model system, we stabilize the mixed-phase coexistence of centrosymmetric and non-centrosymmetric BiFeO_3 phases at room temperature with antipolar, insulating and polar semiconducting behaviour, respectively. Application of orthogonal in-plane electric (polar) fields results in reversible non-volatile interconversion between the two phases, hence removing and introducing centrosymmetry. Counterintuitively, we find that an electric field ‘erases’ polarization, resulting from the anisotropy in octahedral tilts introduced by the interweaving TbScO_3 layers. Consequently, this interconversion between centrosymmetric and non-centrosymmetric phases generates changes in the non-linear optical response of over three orders of magnitude, resistivity of over five orders of magnitude and control of microscopic polar order. Our work establishes a platform for cross-functional devices that take advantage of changes in optical, electrical and ferroic responses, and demonstrates octahedral tilts as an important order parameter in materials interface design.
Penulis (39)
Lucas Caretta
Y. Shao
Jia Yu
A. B. Mei
Bastien F. Grosso
C. Dai
Piush Behera
Daehun Lee
M. McCarter
E. Parsonnet
Harikrishnan K.P.
F. Xue
E. Barnard
S. Ganschow
A. Raja
L. Martin
Long-qing Chen
M. Fiebig
K. Lai
N. Spaldin
D. Muller
D. Schlom
Ramamoorthy Ramesh Department of Materials Science
Engineering
U. O. C. Berkeley
S. Applied
E. Physics
Cornell University
D. Physics
U. T. A. Austin
Department of Materials Science
Department of Materials
Eth Zurich Department of Materials Science
The Pennsylvania State University
Molecular Foundry
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Leibniz-Institut fur Kristallzuchtung
M. Division
Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science
Akses Cepat
- Tahun Terbit
- 2022
- Bahasa
- en
- Total Sitasi
- 45×
- Sumber Database
- Semantic Scholar
- DOI
- 10.1038/s41563-022-01412-0
- Akses
- Open Access ✓