High-speed switching of nanoscale ferroelectric domains in congruent single-crystal LiTaO3

Abstract

The nanodomain reversal characteristics of congruent LiTaO3 (CLT) single crystal are investigated. It is found that fast nanosecond domain switching can be achieved by reducing the sample thickness, even for CLT, which contains many Li vacancy defects that pin domain-wall movement. As an example, the authors obtain a polarization inverted domain dot with a radius of 7.9 nm by application of a 4 ns 10 V pulse. These results demonstrate that the speed of polarization reversal is closely related to the thickness of the medium.

Screening and size effects on the nanodomain tailoring in ferroelectrics semiconductors

“…Such "threshold" domain formation is similar to the well-known first order phase transition and correlates with recent experimental [2], [3] and theoretical [16], [22], [23] results.…”

“…This result seems quite reasonable, because usually stable ferroelectric nanodomains in thin films can be recorded only above some critical voltage 3-6V (see e.g. [2], [3]), on the other hand threshold voltage was calculated in other models (see e.g. [16], [23]).…”

“…It is clear from general point of view that domains formation can be caused by strong local electric fields with definite polarity. Recently one and two dimensional arrays of spike-like nano-domains have been fabricated in LiNbO 3 [1], LiTaO 3 [2], Pb(Zr,Ti)O 3 [3], BaTiO 3 [4], RbTiOPO 4 and RbTiOAsO 4 [5] ferroelectric crystals with the help of electric fields caused by atomic force microscope (AFM) tip. Obtained nano-domain arrays could be successfully used in modern large-capacity memory devices and light converters based on second harmonic generation.…”

Domain growth kinetics in lithium niobate single crystals studied by piezoresponse force microscopy

“…15,16 Note that situation may be different in ultrathin crystals. 2 Figure 2 shows the domain radius as a function of the pulse magnitude for various pulse durations. Variations in domain size did not exceed 8% for domains below 1 m and 4% for larger domains.…”

“…Ferroelectric domain engineering by scanning probe microscopy (SPM) is a rapidly evolving technology that can be used for the development of high-density data storage, nonlinear optical devices and ferroelectric lithography. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] Nanoscale domain patterns may also enable new approaches to fabrication of molecular structures for biological and chemical sensors. The key issues in SPM domain engineering are writing resolution and domain stability which depend both on the domain growth kinetics and on the domain size in the thermodynamically equilibrium state.…”