title: Built-in Electric Field Induced Mechanical Property Change at the Lanthanum Nickelate/Nb-doped Strontium Titanate Interfaces.
abstract: The interactions between electric field and the mechanical properties of materials are important for the applications of microelectromechanical and nanoelectromechanical systems, but relatively unexplored for nanoscale materials. Here, we observe an apparent correlation between the change of the fractured topography of Nb-doped SrTiO3 (Nb:STO) within the presence of a built-in electric field resulting from the Schottky contact at the interface of a metallic LaNiO3 thin film utilizing cross-sectional scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. The change of the inter-atomic bond length mechanism is argued to be the most plausible origin. This picture is supported by the strong-electric-field-dependent permittivity in STO and the existence of the dielectric dead layer at the interfaces of STO with metallic films. These results provided direct evidence and a possible mechanism for the interplay between the electric field and the mechanical properties on the nanoscale for perovskite materials.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071, USA.
authors.forename: TeYu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chien
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA.|Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Yost
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA.
authors.forename: Jak
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chakhalian
authors.affiliation: Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439, USA.
authors.forename: John W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Freeland
authors.affiliation: Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439, USA.
authors.forename: Nathan P
authors.initials: NP
authors.lastname: Guisinger