Depth profiling charge accumulation from a ferroelectric into a doped Mott insulator

Abstract

The electric field control of functional properties is a crucial goal in oxide-based electronics. Non-volatile switching between different resistivity or magnetic states in an oxide channel can be achieved through charge accumulation or depletion from an adjacent ferroelectric. However, the way in which charge distributes near the interface between the ferroelectric and the oxide remains poorly known, which limits our understanding of such switching effects. Here we use a first-of-a-kind combination of scanning transmission electron microscopy with electron energy loss spectroscopy, near-total-reflection hard X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, and ab-initio theory to address this issue. We achieve a direct, quantitative, atomic-scale characterization of the polarization-induced charge density changes at the interface between the ferroelectric BiFeO3 and the doped Mott insulator Ca1-xCexMnO3, thus providing insight on how interface-engineering can enhance these switching effects.

Work supported by ERC Consolidator grant MINT (Contract No. 615759)

References in corpus (8)

• Why Some Interfaces Cannot be Sharp
• Effect of epitaxial strain on the spontaneous polarization of thin film ferroelectrics
• Origin of the magnetoelectric coupling effect in Pb(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3/La0.8Sr0.2MnO3 multiferroic heterostructures
• Prediction of electrically-induced magnetic reconstruction at the manganite/ferroelectric interface
• Reversible modulation of orbital occupations via an interface-induced state in metallic manganites
• Momentum-resolved electronic structure at a buried interface from soft x-ray standing-wave angle-resolved photoemission
• Surface enhanced covalency and Madelung potentials in Nb doped SrTiO${}_3$ (100), (110) and (111) single crystals
• Polarization sensitive surface band structure of doped BaTiO3(001)

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Giant topological Hall effect in correlated oxide thin films
• Layer and spontaneous polarizations in perovskite oxides and their interplay in multiferroic bismuth ferrite
• Electron-polaron dichotomy of charge carriers in perovskite oxides
• High resolution depth profiling using near-total-reflection hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
• Hard x-ray standing-wave photoemission insights into the structure of an epitaxial Fe/MgO multilayer magnetic tunnel junction
• Near total reflection X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy: Quantifying chemistry at solid/liquid and solid/solid interfaces
• Ferroelectric tunnel junctions