Boosting Polarization Switching-Induced Current Injection by Mechanical Force in Ferroelectric Thin Films

Fengyuan Zhang; Hua Fan; Bin Han; Dongyu Zhu; Xiong Deng; David Edwards; Amit Kumar; Deyang Chen; Xingsen Gao; Zhen Fan; Brian Rodriguez

doi:10.1021/acsami.1c04912

Boosting Polarization Switching-Induced Current Injection by Mechanical Force in Ferroelectric Thin Films

Fengyuan Zhang, Hua Fan, Bin Han, Dongyu Zhu, Xiong Deng, David Edwards, Amit Kumar, Deyang Chen, Xingsen Gao, Zhen Fan, Brian Rodriguez

School of Mathematics and Physics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

When scaling the lateral size of a ferroelectric random access memory (FeRAM) device down to the nanometer range, the polarization switching-induced displacement current becomes small and challenging to detect, which greatly limits the storage density of FeRAM. Here, we report the observation of significantly enhanced injection currents, much larger than typical switching currents, induced by polarization switching in BiFeO3 thin films via conductive atomic force microscopy. Interestingly, this injected current can be effectively modulated by applying mechanical force. As the loading force increases from ∼50 to ∼750 nN, the magnitude of the injected current increases and the critical voltage to trigger the current injection decreases. Notably, changing the loading force by an order of magnitude increases the peak current by 2-3 orders of magnitude. The mechanically boosted injected current could be useful for the development of high-density FeRAM devices. The mechanical modulation of the injected current may be attributed to the mechanical force-induced changes in the barrier height and interfacial layer width.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	26180-26186
Number of pages	7
Journal	ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Volume	13
Issue number	22
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.1c04912
Publication status	Published - 09 Jun 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This publication has emanated from research supported by the China Scholarship Council, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1932125, U1832104, and 92066203), the Foundation for Basic and Applied Basic Research of Guangdong Province (2020A1515010996), the Project for Guangdong Province Universities and Colleges Pearl River Scholar Funded Scheme 2018, the Guangdong Science and Technology Project-International Cooperation (Grant No. 2019A050510036), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council through contract EP/S037179/1, the Department for Economy-NI through the U.S.–Ireland Research and Development Partnership Programme USI-082, and Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) under the U.S.–Ireland R&D Partnership Programme (SFI/14/US/I3113) and the Career Development Award (SFI/17/CDA/4637).

Publisher Copyright:
©

Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Keywords

BiFeO
FeRAM
ferroelectric
injected current
mechanical force

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Materials Science

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10.1021/acsami.1c04912Licence: CC BY

Boosting Polarization Switching-induced Current Injection by Mechanical Force in Ferroelectric Thin Films
Copyright 2021 the authors. This is an open access article published under a Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the author and source are cited.
Final published version, 2.91 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Boosting Polarization Switching-Induced Current Injection by Mechanical Force in Ferroelectric Thin Films",

abstract = "When scaling the lateral size of a ferroelectric random access memory (FeRAM) device down to the nanometer range, the polarization switching-induced displacement current becomes small and challenging to detect, which greatly limits the storage density of FeRAM. Here, we report the observation of significantly enhanced injection currents, much larger than typical switching currents, induced by polarization switching in BiFeO3 thin films via conductive atomic force microscopy. Interestingly, this injected current can be effectively modulated by applying mechanical force. As the loading force increases from ∼50 to ∼750 nN, the magnitude of the injected current increases and the critical voltage to trigger the current injection decreases. Notably, changing the loading force by an order of magnitude increases the peak current by 2-3 orders of magnitude. The mechanically boosted injected current could be useful for the development of high-density FeRAM devices. The mechanical modulation of the injected current may be attributed to the mechanical force-induced changes in the barrier height and interfacial layer width. ",

keywords = "BiFeO, FeRAM, ferroelectric, injected current, mechanical force",

author = "Fengyuan Zhang and Hua Fan and Bin Han and Dongyu Zhu and Xiong Deng and David Edwards and Amit Kumar and Deyang Chen and Xingsen Gao and Zhen Fan and Brian Rodriguez",

note = "Funding Information: This publication has emanated from research supported by the China Scholarship Council, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1932125, U1832104, and 92066203), the Foundation for Basic and Applied Basic Research of Guangdong Province (2020A1515010996), the Project for Guangdong Province Universities and Colleges Pearl River Scholar Funded Scheme 2018, the Guangdong Science and Technology Project-International Cooperation (Grant No. 2019A050510036), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council through contract EP/S037179/1, the Department for Economy-NI through the U.S.–Ireland Research and Development Partnership Programme USI-082, and Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) under the U.S.–Ireland R&D Partnership Programme (SFI/14/US/I3113) and the Career Development Award (SFI/17/CDA/4637). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.",

year = "2021",

month = jun,

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doi = "10.1021/acsami.1c04912",

language = "English",

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AU - Zhang, Fengyuan

AU - Fan, Hua

AU - Han, Bin

AU - Zhu, Dongyu

AU - Deng, Xiong

AU - Edwards, David

AU - Kumar, Amit

AU - Chen, Deyang

AU - Gao, Xingsen

AU - Fan, Zhen

AU - Rodriguez, Brian

N1 - Funding Information: This publication has emanated from research supported by the China Scholarship Council, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1932125, U1832104, and 92066203), the Foundation for Basic and Applied Basic Research of Guangdong Province (2020A1515010996), the Project for Guangdong Province Universities and Colleges Pearl River Scholar Funded Scheme 2018, the Guangdong Science and Technology Project-International Cooperation (Grant No. 2019A050510036), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council through contract EP/S037179/1, the Department for Economy-NI through the U.S.–Ireland Research and Development Partnership Programme USI-082, and Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) under the U.S.–Ireland R&D Partnership Programme (SFI/14/US/I3113) and the Career Development Award (SFI/17/CDA/4637). Publisher Copyright: © Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2021/6/9

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N2 - When scaling the lateral size of a ferroelectric random access memory (FeRAM) device down to the nanometer range, the polarization switching-induced displacement current becomes small and challenging to detect, which greatly limits the storage density of FeRAM. Here, we report the observation of significantly enhanced injection currents, much larger than typical switching currents, induced by polarization switching in BiFeO3 thin films via conductive atomic force microscopy. Interestingly, this injected current can be effectively modulated by applying mechanical force. As the loading force increases from ∼50 to ∼750 nN, the magnitude of the injected current increases and the critical voltage to trigger the current injection decreases. Notably, changing the loading force by an order of magnitude increases the peak current by 2-3 orders of magnitude. The mechanically boosted injected current could be useful for the development of high-density FeRAM devices. The mechanical modulation of the injected current may be attributed to the mechanical force-induced changes in the barrier height and interfacial layer width.

AB - When scaling the lateral size of a ferroelectric random access memory (FeRAM) device down to the nanometer range, the polarization switching-induced displacement current becomes small and challenging to detect, which greatly limits the storage density of FeRAM. Here, we report the observation of significantly enhanced injection currents, much larger than typical switching currents, induced by polarization switching in BiFeO3 thin films via conductive atomic force microscopy. Interestingly, this injected current can be effectively modulated by applying mechanical force. As the loading force increases from ∼50 to ∼750 nN, the magnitude of the injected current increases and the critical voltage to trigger the current injection decreases. Notably, changing the loading force by an order of magnitude increases the peak current by 2-3 orders of magnitude. The mechanically boosted injected current could be useful for the development of high-density FeRAM devices. The mechanical modulation of the injected current may be attributed to the mechanical force-induced changes in the barrier height and interfacial layer width.

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KW - FeRAM

KW - ferroelectric

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KW - mechanical force

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M3 - Article

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AN - SCOPUS:85108020481

SN - 1944-8244

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EP - 26186

JO - ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces

JF - ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces

IS - 22

ER -

Boosting Polarization Switching-Induced Current Injection by Mechanical Force in Ferroelectric Thin Films

Abstract

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Keywords

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