Investigation of Critical Polarization Behavior in Ultrathin Ferroelectric Films

Supplement to Nebraska MRSEC:

This MRSEC Supplement addresses important issues complementary to the on-going research activities within the IRG2 related to ferroelectric and multiferroic tunnel junctions. Specifically, it addresses the effect of film thickness and electrical boundary conditions on polarization stability in ultrathin ferroelectric structures. Piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) technique has been employed for nanoscale control and visualization of ferroelectric polarization in conjunction with computational modeling of polarization behavior.

 

PFM images of the bi-domain patterns in the BTO/SRO structures (a) and SRO/BTO/SRO structures (b).

PFM images of the bi-domain patterns in the BTO/SRO structures (a) and SRO/BTO/SRO structures (b).

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Alexei Gruverman (coordinator) - Structural, ferroelectric and transport characterization

Evgeny Tsymbal - Computational materials science and materials design by theory

Chang-Beom Eom (U. Wisconsin) - Fabrication of complex multilayer heterostructures