Conductive domain walls in x-cut lithium niobate crystals

Abstract

Conductive ferroelectric domain walls have been the focus of intensive studies in nanoelectronics due to their promising electronic properties. Here, both head-to-head and tail-to-tail domain walls with a large inclination angle ([Formula: see text]90[Formula: see text]) were fabricated on the surface of [Formula: see text]-cut nominally pure congruent lithium niobate crystals. Our results show that both types of domain walls are conductive, while the conductivity of the head-to-head domain walls is larger than that of the tail-to-tail domain walls by about two orders of magnitude at the same inclination angle of domain walls.

Ferroelectric Domain Wall p–n Junctions

“…While many 2D conducting systems exist, ferroelectric domain walls are particularly exciting because they can be moved around within the insulating ferroelectric matrix as domains expand and contract under the influence of external fields. Indeed, during switching, domains and domain walls may be created and destroyed; domain-wall-based conducting conduits are hence inherently mobile and ephemeral in nature, and this has prompted their use in completely new forms of transient devices and electronic circuitry. ,− In principle, mobile and ephemeral p–n junctions could be extremely important, in this context, and it is hence surprising that greater efforts to characterize their properties have not been made. The single most relevant report to date concerns the functional characterization of a domain-wall p–i–n junction .…”