Saeedeh Farokhipoor

Tuning the atomic and domain structure of epitaxial films of multiferroic BiFeO3

Recent works have shown that the domain walls of room-temperature multiferroic BiFeO3 (BFO) thin films can display distinct and promising functionalities. It is thus important to understand the mechanisms underlying domain formation in these films. High-resolution x-ray diffraction and piezoforce microscopy, combined with first-principles simulations, have allowed us to characterize both the atomic and domain structure of BFO films grown under compressive strain on (001)-SrTiO3, as a function of thickness. The clamping of the substrate has been observed to exist in two different regimes: ultrathin, d 18 nm. When this is taken into account in the calculations, an excellent agreement between the predicted and observed lattice parameters is shown. We derive a twinning model that describes the experimental observations and could explain why the 71 degrees domain walls are the only ones showing insulating character. This understanding of the exact mechanism for domain formation provides us with a new degree of freedom to control the structure and, thus, the properties of BiFeO3 thin films.

Local conductivity and the role of vacancies around twin walls of (001)-BiFeO3 thin films

BiFeO3 thin films epitaxially grown on SrRuO3-buffered (001)-oriented SrTiO3 substrates show orthogonal bundles of twin domains, each of which contains parallel and periodic 71° domain walls. A smaller amount of 109° domain walls are also present at the boundaries between two adjacent bundles. All as-grown twin walls display enhanced conductivity with respect to the domains during local probe measurements, due to the selective lowering of the Schottky barrier between the film and the AFM tip [S. Farokhipoor and B. Noheda, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 127601 (2011)]. In this paper, we further discuss these results and show why other conduction mechanisms are discarded. In addition, we show the crucial role that oxygen vacancies play in determining the amount of conduction at the walls. This prompts us to propose that the oxygen vacancies migrating to the walls locally lower the Schottky barrier. This mechanism would then be less efficient in non-ferroelastic domain walls where one expects no strain gradients arou...

Screening effects in ferroelectric resistive switching of BiFeO3 thin films

We investigate ferroelectric resistive switching in BiFeO3 thin films by performing local conductivity measurements. By comparing conduction characteristics at artificially up-polarized domains with those at as-grown down-polarized domains, the change in resistance is attributed to the modification of the electronic barrier height at the interface with the electrodes, upon the reversal of the electrical polarization. We also study the effect of oxygen vacancies on the observed conduction and we propose the existence of a different screening mechanism for up and down polarized domains.

Conduction through 71 degrees DomainWalls in BiFeO3 Thin Films

Local conduction at domains and domain walls is investigated in BiFeO(3) thin films containing mostly 71° domain walls. Measurements at room temperature reveal conduction through 71° domain walls. Conduction through domains could also be observed at high enough temperatures. It is found that, despite the lower conductivity of the domains, both are governed by the same mechanisms: in the low voltage regime, electrons trapped at defect states are temperature activated but the current is limited by the ferroelectric surface charges; in the large voltage regime, Schottky emission takes place and the role of oxygen vacancies is that of selectively increasing the Fermi energy at the walls and locally reducing the Schottky barrier. This understanding provides the key to engineering conduction paths in BiFeO(3).

Domain wall magnetoresistance in BiFeO3 thin films measured by scanning probe microscopy

We measure the magnetotransport properties of individual 71° domain walls in multiferroic BiFeO3 by means of conductive-atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) in the presence of magnetic fields up to one Tesla. The results suggest anisotropic magnetoresistance at room temperature, with the sign of the magnetoresistance depending on the relative orientation between the magnetic field and the domain wall plane. A consequence of this finding is that macroscopically averaged magnetoresistance measurements for domain wall bunches are likely to underestimate the magnetoresistance of each individual domain wall.

Local deformation gradients in epitaxial Pb(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O-3 layers investigated by transmission electron microscopy

Lead zirconate titanate samples are used for their piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties in various types of micro-devices. Epitaxial layers of tetragonal perovskites have a tendency to relax by forming [Formula: see text] ferroelastic domains. The accommodation of the a/c/a/c polydomain structure on a flat substrate leads to nanoscale deformation gradients which locally influence the polarization by flexoelectric effect. Here, we investigated the deformation fields in epitaxial layers of Pb(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3 grown on SrTiO3 substrates using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). We found that the deformation gradients depend on the domain walls inclination ([Formula: see text] or [Formula: see text] to the substrate interface) of the successive [Formula: see text] domains and we describe three different a/c/a domain configurations: one configuration with parallel a-domains and two configurations with perpendicular a-domains (V-shaped and hat-[Formula: see text]-shaped). In the parallel configuration, the c-domains contain horizontal and vertical gradients of out-of-plane deformation. In the V-shaped and hat-[Formula: see text]-shaped configurations, the c-domains exhibit a bending deformation field with vertical gradients of in-plane deformation. Each of these configurations is expected to have a different influence on the polarization and so the local properties of the film. The deformation gradients were measured using dark-field electron holography, a TEM technique, which offers a good sensitivity (0.1%) and a large field-of-view (hundreds of nanometers). The measurements are compared with finite element simulations.