Ferroelectric, ferroelastic, and multiferroic domain walls: a new horizon in functional materials
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Warwick
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
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People |
ORCID iD |
| Marin Alexe (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Borderon C
(2017)
Domain wall motion in Pb(Zr0.20Ti0.80)O3 epitaxial thin films.
in Scientific reports
Dong W
(2020)
Emergent Antipolar Phase in BiFeO3-La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 Superlattice.
in Nano letters
Gruverman A
(2019)
Piezoresponse force microscopy and nanoferroic phenomena
in Nature Communications
Heo Y
(2022)
Boosting Piezoelectricity under Illumination via the Bulk Photovoltaic Effect and the Schottky Barrier Effect in BiFeO3.
in Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.)
Heo Y
(2022)
Dynamic Control of Piezoelectricity Enhancement via Modulation of the Bulk Photovoltaic Effect in a BiFeO 3 Thin Film
in Advanced Electronic Materials
Himcinschi C
(2019)
Ferroelastic domain identification in BiFeO3 crystals using Raman spectroscopy
in Scientific Reports
Kwamen C
(2019)
Time-resolved X-ray diffraction study of the structural dynamics in an epitaxial ferroelectric thin Pb(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3 film induced by sub-coercive fields
in Applied Physics Letters
Kwon O
(2021)
Quantitative Local Probing of Polarization with Application on HfO2 -Based Thin Films.
in Small methods
Luo Z
(2019)
Dissolvable Memristors for Physically Transient Neuromorphic Computing Applications
in ACS Applied Electronic Materials
| Description | Domain walls injection, annihilation, move along with careful investigations of physical properties have been performed on ferroelectric systems based usually on perovskite oxides. One direction in which significant knowledge was generated is the light-matter interaction, especially interaction of light with order parameters such as dielectric polarisation. Light control of domains and domain walls was one an important achievement. Light only generated ferroelectric switching was demonstrated for the first time. This has been followed shortly by showing light-controlled nanoscopic writing of electronic memories using the tip-enhanced bulk photovoltaic effect (BPV). We have used the BPV effect to realize programmable nanoscopic writing of nonphotoactive electronic devices solely by light control. We have also showed that electronic properties of solid-state memory devices can be reversibly and location precisely manipulated in the nanoscale using the BPV effect in combination with the nanoscale contact connection and domain wall move. The controlled ferroelectric switching and domain walls move by both light and electric field has been used for construct optoelectronic synapses, respectively devices with optically driven synaptic functionalities. These can emulate brain-like synapses, including both short- and long-term plasticity and implement of brain-like learning rules. We additionally demonstrate that strain gradient induces local symmetry breaking and as a result, a plethora of associated effects can be detected. For example, a new photovoltaic effects coined as flexo-photovoltaic effect was discovered. This has been used to explain the drastic changing of the electronic properties induced by the built-in strain gradient at the domain walls and phase boundaries. Due to the giant strain gradient manifested at the morphotropic phase boundaries of BiFeO3, the associated flexo-photovoltaic effect induces an enhanced photoconduction in one of the phases while in the other phase a negative photoconductivity. We have also demonstrated that interfacial built-in electric field at interfaces with significant band bending, such as metal-semiconductor interfaces, are polar, piezoelectric and pyroelectric. This not only that might explain many of the functional properties of domains walls, including piezoelectric properties of pure non-ferroelectric domain walls, second-harmonic generations at 180 deg. domain walls, etc., but generates substantial piezoelectric and pyroelectric effects. In particular, the pyroelectric coefficient and figure of merit of the metal-semiconductor interfaces are over one order of magnitude larger than those of conventional bulk polar materials. |
| Exploitation Route | The strain-induced photovoltaic effect may be used in enhancing the photovoltaic effect in other boundary-based transduces such as p-n junctions. A potential increase in solar-cells efficiently is expected for a proper nano-scale design of the strain gradient. The built-in electric field in the depletion region that induces polar structures in the semiconductors might generate a completely new class of sensors and transducers based on interfacial pyroelectric and piezoelectric effects with completely different control parameters than the classical bulk counterpart. Integration of the optoelectronic synapses with these rich synaptic functionalities into one single artificial optoelectronic device could allow the development of future neuromorphic electronics capable of optical information sensing and learning. |
| Sectors | Education,Electronics,Energy |
| Description | Ferroelectric, ferroelastic, and multiferroic domain walls: a new horizon in functional materials |
| Organisation | Queen's University Belfast |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Developed a consortium to study functionality at ferroic domain walls. The consortium has applied for a EPSRC critical mass grant. The application was successful. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Developed a consortium to study functionality at ferroic domain walls. The consortium has applied for a EPSRC critical mass grant. The application was successful. |
| Impact | The consortium has applied for a EPSRC critical mass grant. The application was successful. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Interfacial coupling in BFO/LSMO superlattices |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Contributed talk at IEEE ISAF-EMF-ICE-IWPM-PFM, EPFL, Switzerland, July 2019 presented by Wen Dong |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://ieee-uffc.org/news/2019-ieee-isaf-lausanne-july-2019/ |
| Description | Invited Talk 6th Workshop on Materials Physics 2021 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk to 6th Workshop on Materials Physics. Latest results on domain walls, vortices, and topological structures were reports and received a massive interest. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://infim.ro/event/6th-edition-of-the-international-workshop-of-materials-physics-first-announce... |
| Description | Invited Talk at at Young scientist PACE conference, Luxembourg |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk at a conference organised by and for young postgraduate students. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Invited Tlak Halle 2021 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk the Martin Luther University Halle, Germany |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Loughborough University |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | scientific talk presenting latest achievement at Warwick. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022 |
| Description | Organisation of conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Organisation of the conference of the European Meeting on Ferroelectricity (EMF) part of the IEEE International Symposium on the Applications of Ferroelectrics (ISAF) was held at the Swiss Tech Convention Center near the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, from July 14th to 19th, 2019 within the joint Conference, "F2cp2 2019", that united ISAF with several other international and European symposia : -International Conference on Electroceramics (ICE); -European Meeting on Ferroelectricity (EMF); -International Workshop on PiezoMEMS (IWPM); -Piezoresponse Force Microscopy Workshop (PFM). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://ieee-uffc.org/news/2019-ieee-isaf-lausanne-july-2019/ |
| Description | Plenary lecture ISAF2021 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was a plenary lecture to the most important conference of the field of ferroelectrics. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://isaf-isif-pfm2021.org |
| Description | TU Dresden seminar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Talk given by Samuel Seddon within the regular departmental seminar at TU Dresden. Attended by >50 people including undergraduate and postgraduate students. The latest results regarding the low-temperature AFMN investigations have been reported. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Talk APS March meeting 2021 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Talk presented by Sam Seddon et al., Real-space Observation of Ferroelectrically Induced Magnetic Spin Crystal in SrRuO3, at the APS march meeting 2021 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/MAR21/Session/J40.8 |
| Description | Talk attcube Munich 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Talk given by Samuel Seddon to attcube GmbH. Attended by >20 people mostly professional. The latest results regarding the low-temperature AFMN investigations have been reported. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |