Abstract
Although enhanced conductivity of ferroelectric domain boundaries has been found in BiFeO3 and Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 films as well as hexagonal rare-earth manganite single crystals, the mechanism of the domain wall conductivity is still under debate. Using conductive atomic force microscopy, we observe enhanced conductance at the electrically-neutral domain walls in semiconducting hexagonal ferroelectric TbMnO3 thin films where the structure and polarization direction are strongly constrained along the c-axis. This result indicates that domain wall conductivity in ferroelectric rare-earth manganites is not limited to charged domain walls. We show that the observed conductivity in the TbMnO3 films is governed by a single conduction mechanism, namely, the back-to-back Schottky diodes tuned by the segregation of defects.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 155705 |
Journal | Nanotechnology |
Volume | 27 |
Issue number | 15 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 2 2016 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2016 IOP Publishing Ltd.
Keywords
- back-to-back Schottky barrier
- conductive atomic force microscopy
- domain wall conductivity
- ferroelectric
- hexagonal manganite
- semiconducting
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Bioengineering
- General Chemistry
- General Materials Science
- Mechanics of Materials
- Mechanical Engineering
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering