Nonvolatile ferroelectric domain wall memory

Pankaj Sharma, Qi Zhang, Daniel Sando, Chi Hou Lei, Yunya Liu, Jiangyu Li, Valanoor Nagarajan, Jan Seidel

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

292 Citations (Scopus)
37 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Ferroelectric domain walls are atomically sharp topological defects that separate regions of uniform polarization. The discovery of electrical conductivity in specific types of walls gave rise to “domain wall nanoelectronics,” a technology in which the wall (rather than the domain) stores information. This paradigm shift critically hinges on precise nanoengineering of reconfigurable domain walls. Using specially designed nanofabricated electrodes and scanning probe techniques, we demonstrate a prototype nonvolatile ferroelectric domain wall memory, scalable to below 100 nm, whose binary state is defined by the existence or absence of conductive walls. The device can be read out nondestructively at moderate voltages (>3 V), exhibits relatively high OFF-ON ratios (~103) with excellent endurance and retention characteristics, and has multilevel data storage capacity. Our work thus constitutes an important step toward integrated nanoscale ferroelectric domain wall memory devices.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere1700512
Number of pages8
JournalScience Advances
Volume3
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Jun 2017
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Ferroelectric domain walls
  • domain wall nanoelectronics

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