Functional electronic inversion layers at ferroelectric domain walls.
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.
School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
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0000-0001-8454-0124
JA
Mundy
Department of Materials, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland.
J
J
Schaab
Department of Materials, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland.
Y
Y
Kumagai
CNRS, Université de Bordeaux, ICMCB, UPR 9048, 33600 Pessac, France.
A
A
Cano
ICREA-Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, 08010 Barcelona, Spain.|Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), Campus UAB, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain.
M
M
Stengel
Institut für Optik und Atomare Physik, TU Berlin, 10623 Berlin, Germany.
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0000-0003-4579-6674
IP
Krug
Peter Grünberg Institute (PGI-6), Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany.
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DM
Gottlob
Peter Grünberg Institute (PGI-6), Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany.
H
H
Dog Anay
School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
M E
ME
Holtz
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
R
R
Held
Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.|Department of Physics, ETH Zurich, Otto-Stern-Weg 1, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland.
Z
Z
Yan
Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
E
E
Bourret
Peter Grünberg Institute (PGI-6), Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany.
C M
CM
Schneider
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.|Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
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DG
Schlom
School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.|Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
D A
0000-0003-4129-0473
DA
Muller
Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.|Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Department of Physics, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
R
R
Ramesh
Department of Materials, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland.
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NA
Spaldin
Department of Materials, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland.|Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway.
D
D
Meier