Low-Voltage Domain-Wall LiNbO3 Memristors.

Application of conducting ferroelectric domain walls (DWs) as functional elements may facilitate development of conceptually new resistive switching devices. In a conventional approach, several orders of magnitude change in resistance can be achieved by controlling the DW density using supercoercive voltage. However, a deleterious characteristic of this approach is high-energy cost of polarization reversal due to high leakage current. Here, we demonstrate a new approach based on tuning the conductivity of DWs themselves rather than on domain rearrangement. Using LiNbO3 capacitors with graphene, we show that resistance of a device set to a polydomain state can be continuously tuned by application of subcoercive voltage. The tuning mechanism is based on the reversible transition between the conducting and insulating states of DWs. The developed approach allows an energy-efficient control of resistance without the need for domain structure modification. The developed memristive devices are promising for multilevel memories and neuromorphic computing applications.

Hall effect in charged conducting ferroelectric domain walls.

Enhanced conductivity at specific domain walls in ferroelectrics is now an established phenomenon. Surprisingly, however, little is known about the most fundamental aspects of conduction. Carrier types, densities and mobilities have not been determined and transport mechanisms are still a matter of guesswork. Here we demonstrate that intermittent-contact atomic force microscopy (AFM) can detect the Hall effect in conducting domain walls. Studying YbMnO3 single crystals, we have confirmed that p-type conduction occurs in tail-to-tail charged domain walls. By calibration of the AFM signal, an upper estimate of ∼1 × 1016 cm-3 is calculated for the mobile carrier density in the wall, around four orders of magnitude below that required for complete screening of the polar discontinuity. A carrier mobility of∼50 cm2V-1s-1 is calculated, about an order of magnitude below equivalent carrier mobilities in p-type silicon, but sufficiently high to preclude carrier-lattice coupling associated with small polarons.