Article
Chemistry, Physical
Weijie Yang, Bo Cheng, Jianhua Hou, Junkai Deng, Xiangdong Ding, Jun Sun, Jefferson Zhe Liu
Summary: An electrical-biased or mechanical-loaded scanning probe can generate programmable domain nanopatterns on ferroelectric surfaces, which is important for nanoscale electronics. Using monolayer alpha-In2Se3 ferroelectric as an example, it is discovered that the writing-speed affects the threshold voltages and forces for domain switching. The findings reveal the importance of addressing ferroelectric domain pattern engineering for direct-writing electronics applications.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Y. Jiang, E. Parsonnet, A. Qualls, W. Zhao, S. Susarla, D. Pesquera, A. Dasgupta, M. Acharya, H. Zhang, T. Gosavi, C-C Lin, D. E. Nikonov, H. Li, I. A. Young, R. Ramesh, L. W. Martin
Summary: This article demonstrates high-quality BaTiO3 thin films with nearly bulk-like properties. The scaling of film thickness allows for the access of required coercive voltages and fields for future applications, as well as fast switching speeds and a pathway to subnanosecond switching. Integration of BaTiO3 thin films onto silicon substrates is also shown, with further work discussed.
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Adriana Augurio, Alberto Alvarez-Fernandez, Vishal Panchal, Bede Pittenger, Peter De Wolf, Stefan Guldin, Joe Briscoe
Summary: This study reports the preparation of porous barium titanate (pBTO) thin films using a soft template-assisted sol-gel method, and the control of porosity by different organic/inorganic ratios. The research shows that ferroelectric polarization is retained in the porous structures, and the presence of porosity leads to an improvement in PEC response.
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
(2022)
Article
Physics, Applied
N. V. Sarath, Amit Chauhan, Jatin Kumar Bidika, Subhajit Pal, B. R. K. Nanda, P. Murugavel
Summary: This study proposes a novel lead-free ferroelectric material, (1-x)BTO - xBi(Ni2/3Nb1/3)O-3, which is demonstrated to reduce the bandgap without compromising the polarization. By varying the composition from x = 0.0 to 0.05, the bandgap is reduced from 3.1 to 2.4 eV. The optimal composition, chi = 0.02, exhibits enhanced polarization and anomalous photovoltaic response at room temperature, with an open-circuit voltage of 6 V at 300 K. The origin of the bandgap reduction and polarization retention is explored experimentally and analyzed theoretically.
JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS
(2023)
Article
Physics, Applied
Xiao Long, Huan Tan, Florencio Sanchez, Ignasi Fina, Josep Fontcuberta
Summary: This study explores light-induced ferroelectric polarization switching in BaTiO3 thin films and finds that the optical switch is mainly driven by photocarriers. The effect of light on sample polarization is relatively slow, and a long illumination period is required for complete switching due to the reduced light absorption of BaTiO3 films at the explored wavelengths.
JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS
(2022)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Urko Petralanda, Thomas Olsen
Summary: This work presents a detailed characterization of domain walls (DWs) in two-dimensional ferroelectric materials GeS, GeSe, SnS and SnSe, and proposes a method for calculating coercive fields based on DW migration. The calculated coercive fields show good agreement with experimental results and are two orders of magnitude smaller than those predicted by coherent monodomain switching. In addition, the study finds that the presence of 180° DWs leads to a red shift in the absorption spectrum, suggesting that optical probes can be used to determine the density of DWs.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Anastasia Chouprik, Ekaterina Savelyeva, Evgeny Korostylev, Ekaterina Kondratyuk, Sergey Zarubin, Nikita Sizykh, Maksim Zhuk, Andrei Zenkevich, Andrey M. Markeev, Oleg Kondratev, Sergey Yakunin
Summary: The nanosecond speed of information writing and reading is recognized as one of the main advantages of next-generation non-volatile ferroelectric memory based on hafnium oxide thin films. The study reveals the contribution of domain structure and dielectric layer formed at the electrode interface to the polarization switching speed of Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 (HZO) film. The presence of charged defects in the film hinders domain propagation and deteriorates the overall speed.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Puqi Hao, Shuaizhi Zheng, Binjian Zeng, Tao Yu, Zhibin Yang, Luocheng Liao, Qiangxiang Peng, Qijun Yang, Yichun Zhou, Min Liao
Summary: This study demonstrates that the composition-graded Hf1-xZrxO2 ferroelectric thin film has more than two times faster polarization switching speed and excellent ferroelectricity and improved endurance characteristics compared to the conventional composition-uniform HfO2 thin film. It is discovered that the built-in gradient composition leads to a shift from nucleation-limited-switching mechanism to domain-wall growth mechanism, resulting in the faster speed and better endurance of the composition-graded HZO thin film. These findings not only reveal the physical mechanisms but also provide a new strategy for memory devices with faster speed and higher endurance.
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Man Zhang, Zhe Chen, Yajun Yue, Tao Chen, Zhongna Yan, Qinghui Jiang, Bin Yang, Mirva Eriksson, Jianhua Tang, Dou Zhang, Zhijian Shen, Isaac Abrahams, Haixue Yan
Summary: This study investigated the activity of ferroelectric domain walls in a lead-free Aurivillius phase ferroelectric ceramic using THz-time-domain spectroscopy, and found that the dynamics of domain walls differ at kHz and THz frequencies. The research showed that domain walls have different effects on dielectric permittivity at different frequencies and demonstrated that THz probing can be used to read domain wall dielectric switching.
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Xu Hou, Yuechao Duan, Ziqi Wang, Qingshan Lu
Summary: Introducing polarization effect by constructing a BaTiO3/AgAlO2 heterostructure improves the photocatalytic performance, inhibits charge carrier recombination, and enhances the separation efficiency of photoinduced carriers.
JOURNAL OF ALLOYS AND COMPOUNDS
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Haoying Sun, Jierong Wang, Yushu Wang, Changqing Guo, Jiahui Gu, Wei Mao, Jiangfeng Yang, Yuwei Liu, Tingting Zhang, Tianyi Gao, Hanyu Fu, Tingjun Zhang, Yufeng Hao, Zhengbin Gu, Peng Wang, Houbing Huang, Yuefeng Nie
Summary: By transferring freestanding BaTiO3 membranes onto silicon, a prototype of ferroelectric domain wall memory with distinct in-plane multidomain structures and high reading currents has been successfully demonstrated. This highlights the great potential of integrating perovskite oxides with silicon for ferroelectric domain wall memories.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Wei-Qiang Liao, Bin-Bin Deng, Zhong-Xia Wang, Ting-Ting Cheng, Yan-Ting Hu, Shu-Ping Cheng, Ren-Gen Xiong
Summary: SA-PFA is an organic molecular ferroelectric material with light-triggered reversible structural changes, showing clear ferroelectricity and optically induced ferroelectric polarization switching behavior. The reversible photoisomerization effect of SA-PFA enables potential application in light-controlled ferroelectric devices.
Article
Physics, Applied
Joshua Mayersky, Rashmi Jha, Amber Reed
Summary: This paper reports the true ferroelectric characteristics of BTO as a function of temperature and interface charge density at the BTO/Nb:STO interface. It is found that the average remanent polarization of BTO decreases with increasing temperature. The activation energy and trapping at the interface under positive and negative ferroelectric polarization states are also characterized.
APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Denis Alikin, Anton Turygin, Andrei Ushakov, Mikhail Kosobokov, Yurij Alikin, Qingyuan Hu, Xin Liu, Zhuo Xu, Xiaoyong Wei, Vladimir Shur
Summary: This study demonstrates a strategy to control the formation of selective ferroelectric or ferroelastic domain walls in single-domain rhombohedral PMN-PT single crystals by varying the humidity level. The observed reduction in ferroelastic domain density during local switching is attributed to changes in electric field distribution and screening effectiveness.
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Ekaterina Kondratyuk, Vitalii Mikheev, Anastasia Chouprik
Summary: Ferroelectric hafnium oxide films are attracting interest due to their perfect compatibility with Si technology, scalability, low power consumption, high endurance, and nanosecond switching speed. This study demonstrates that the switching speed strongly depends on the prehistory of memory cells and can vary by several orders of magnitude. The degradation of the switching speed caused by charge injection affects the readout of memory chips.
ACS APPLIED ELECTRONIC MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Milos Ognjanovic, Irena Spasojevic, Dalibor M. Stankovic, Yue Ming, Bostjan Jancar, Biljana Dojcinovic, Vojislav Spasojevic, Bratislav Antic
JOURNAL OF NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
(2019)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
E. Pach, A. Verdaguer
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY C
(2019)
Article
Physics, Applied
Sergio Santos, Karim Gadelrab, Chia-Yun Lai, Tuza Olukan, Josep Font, Victor Barcons, Albert Verdaguer, Matteo Chiesa
Summary: The article discusses the fruitful development of dynamic methods in the field of atomic force microscopy, focusing on quantifying forces in the nanoscale and extracting material properties from observable data. It also explores advancements in force reconstruction, experimental data fitting, and multifrequency AFM, while pointing out remaining questions and potential pathways for future advancement in the field.
JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS
(2021)
Review
Chemistry, Physical
Sergio Santos, Carlo Alberto Amadei, Chia-Yun Lai, Tuza Olukan, Jin-You Lu, Josep Font, Victor Barcons, Albert Verdaguer, Matteo Chiesa
Summary: The phenomenon of nanometric water films on surfaces is pervasive in nature and affects surface chemistry, physical-chemical processes, and solid-solid interactions. Research has shown that these water layers impact apparent height measurements, wettability over time, and have led to the development of high-resolution imaging modes.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY C
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Annalisa Calo, Aitziber Eleta-Lopez, Thierry Ondarcuhu, Albert Verdaguer, Alexander M. Bittner
Summary: This study used atomic force microscopy to investigate the nanoscale wetting of Tobacco Mosaic virions, revealing a high sensitivity of multifrequency AFM in visualizing condensed water and sub-micrometer droplets at relative humidity levels above 100%.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Irena Spasojevic, Guillaume Sauthier, Jose Manuel Caicedo, Albert Verdaguer, Neus Domingo
Summary: The study focuses on the XPS analysis of ferroelectric BaTiO3 thin films to determine the relationship between surface chemistry, polarization direction, and stability. Changes were observed under environmental conditions, heating in O2, and irradiation in vacuum. The research identified two different oxidation states of O atoms in Ba compounds and demonstrated BaO2 as an important active species for studying screening mechanisms related to catalytic activity in the ferroelectric material.
APPLIED SURFACE SCIENCE
(2021)
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Elzbieta Pach, Albert Verdaguer
Summary: SEM, a powerful imaging technique, is now able to study ice at nanoscale by introducing water vapor and controlling sample temperature. Many studies have focused on using SEM to study ice nucleation, morphology, thaw, and clarify ice nucleation mechanisms as well as study ice dynamics. Research in this field aims to elucidate the present and future of SEM applied to ice studies.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Iaroslav Gaponenko, Loiec Musy, Neus Domingo, Nicolas Stucki, Albert Verdaguer, Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb, Patrycja Paruch
Summary: This study systematically investigated the effects of relative humidity and polarisation switching history on surface charge dissipation in ferroelectric Pb(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O-3 thin films, employing the framework of physically constrained unsupervised machine learning matrix factorisation, Dictionary Learning. The analysis revealed a complex interplay of voltage-mediated physical processes underlying the observed signal decays, with additional insight provided by a Fitzhugh-Nagumo reaction-diffusion model.
NPJ COMPUTATIONAL MATERIALS
(2021)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Andres Gomez, Vladimir V. Palyulin, Gleb V. Ryzhakov, Nikolai V. Brilliantov, Evgeniy V. Dubrovin, Albert Verdaguer, Jordi Sort
Summary: We have developed an experimental method for in-situ stress measurement at the nanoscale, based on the piezoelectric effect in the contact zone between a probe and a pyroelectric crystal. We have demonstrated that the continuum theory of elasticity and piezoelectricity remain valid at the nanoscale. Moreover, we have shown that the stress in the bulk of the contacting bodies can also be reconstructed, opening the way to 3D stress nanotomography.
JOURNAL OF THE MECHANICS AND PHYSICS OF SOLIDS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Elzbieta Pach, Albert Verdaguer
Summary: Feldspars are identified as the most active aerosol mineral particles contributing to induce ice nucleation. A study demonstrates a historical effect of freezing temperature on feldspar minerals after consecutive freeze-thaw cycles, which can be eliminated by exposure to oxygen plasma.
PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY CHEMICAL PHYSICS
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Neus Domingo, Iaroslav Gaponenko, Kumara Cordero-Edwards, Nicolas Stucki, Virginia Perez-Dieste, Carlos Escudero, Elzbieta Pach, Albert Verdaguer, Patrycja Paruch
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Neus Domingo, Elzbieta Pach, Kumara Cordero-Edwards, Virginia Perez-Dieste, Carlos Escudero, Albert Verdaguer
PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY CHEMICAL PHYSICS
(2019)
