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Deterministic control of ferroelastic switching in multiferroic materials

Nature Nanotechnology volume 4, pages 868–875 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Multiferroic materials showing coupled electric, magnetic and elastic orderings provide a platform to explore complexity and new paradigms for memory and logic devices. Until now, the deterministic control of non-ferroelectric order parameters in multiferroics has been elusive. Here, we demonstrate deterministic ferroelastic switching in rhombohedral BiFeO3 by domain nucleation with a scanning probe. We are able to select among final states that have the same electrostatic energy, but differ dramatically in elastic or magnetic order, by applying voltage to the probe while it is in lateral motion. We also demonstrate the controlled creation of a ferrotoroidal order parameter. The ability to control local elastic, magnetic and torroidal order parameters with an electric field will make it possible to probe local strain and magnetic ordering, and engineer various magnetoelectric, domain-wall-based and strain-coupled devices.

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Figure 1: Ferroelectric domains in BFO.
Figure 2: Switching spectroscopy piezoresponse force microscopy.
Figure 3: Phase-field simulations of ferroelectric switching in BFO.
Figure 4: Tip control of polarization switching mechanisms.
Figure 5: Engineering domain patterns.
Figure 6: Creation of closure in-plane domains in BFO.

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Acknowledgements

This research was sponsored by the Division of Scientific User Facilities, Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences (S.J., A.P.B.) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory Laboratory Directed Research and Development program (S.V.K., L.Q.C.). S.C. and L.Q.C. acknowledge the financial support of National Science Foundation under DMR-0213623 and DMR-0507146. The theory work at Pennsylvania State University is also supported by the Department of Energy Basic Sciences under DE-FG02-07ER46417 (L.Q.C.). Y.H.C. would like to acknowledge the support of the National Science Council, Republic of China, under contract No. NSC 98-2119-M-009-019. N.B. acknowledges support from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, 37831, Tennessee, USA

    N. Balke, S. Jesse, A. P. Baddorf & S. V. Kalinin

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, 16802, Pennsylvania, USA

    S. Choudhury & L. Q. Chen

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, 94720, California, USA

    M. Huijben, Y. H. Chu & R. Ramesh

  4. Faculty of Science and Technology, MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, PO Box 217, Enschede, 7500 AE, The Netherlands

    M. Huijben

  5. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, 30010, Taiwan

    Y. H. Chu

  6. Materials Sciences and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, 37831, Tennessee, USA

    S. V. Kalinin

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  1. N. Balke
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  2. S. Choudhury
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  3. S. Jesse
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  4. M. Huijben
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Contributions

N.B. conceived, designed and conducted the experiments, and wrote the article. S.C. and L.Q.C. performed modelling. M.H., Y.H.C. and R.R. contributed materials and S.J. developed spectroscopic measurement technique and analysis tools. S.V.K. and A.P.B. co-wrote the article. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to N. Balke.

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Balke, N., Choudhury, S., Jesse, S. et al. Deterministic control of ferroelastic switching in multiferroic materials. Nature Nanotech 4, 868–875 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2009.293

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