High-density switchable skyrmion-like polar nanodomains integrated on silicon

Lu Han; Christopher Addiego; Sergei Prokhorenko; Meiyu Wang; Hanyu Fu; Yousra Nahas; Xingxu Yan; Songhua Cai; Tianqi Wei; Yanhan Fang; Huazhan Liu; Dianxiang Ji; Wei Guo; Zhengbin Gu; Yurong Yang; Peng Wang; Laurent Bellaiche; Yanfeng Chen; Di Wu; Yuefeng Nie; Xiaoqing Pan

doi:10.1038/s41586-021-04338-w

High-density switchable skyrmion-like polar nanodomains integrated on silicon

Nature. 2022 Mar;603(7899):63-67. doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04338-w. Epub 2022 Mar 2.

Authors

Lu Han^{1

2}, Christopher Addiego³, Sergei Prokhorenko⁴, Meiyu Wang^{1

2}, Hanyu Fu^{1

2}, Yousra Nahas⁴, Xingxu Yan^{5

6}, Songhua Cai⁷, Tianqi Wei^{1

2}, Yanhan Fang^{1

2}, Huazhan Liu^{1

2}, Dianxiang Ji⁷, Wei Guo^{1

2}, Zhengbin Gu^{1

2}, Yurong Yang^{1

2}, Peng Wang^{1

2

8}, Laurent Bellaiche⁴, Yanfeng Chen^{1

2}, Di Wu^{9

10}, Yuefeng Nie^{11

12}, Xiaoqing Pan^{13

14

15}

Affiliations

¹ National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Artificial Functional Materials, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
² Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA.
⁴ Physics Department and Institute for Nanoscience and Engineering, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA.
⁵ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA.
⁶ Irvine Materials Research Institute, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA.
⁷ Department of Applied Physics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, People's Republic of China.
⁸ Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK.
⁹ National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Artificial Functional Materials, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, People's Republic of China. diwu@nju.edu.cn.
¹⁰ Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing, People's Republic of China. diwu@nju.edu.cn.
¹¹ National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Artificial Functional Materials, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, People's Republic of China. ynie@nju.edu.cn.
¹² Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing, People's Republic of China. ynie@nju.edu.cn.
¹³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA. xiaoqing.pan@uci.edu.
¹⁴ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA. xiaoqing.pan@uci.edu.
¹⁵ Irvine Materials Research Institute, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA. xiaoqing.pan@uci.edu.

PMID: 35236971
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04338-w

Abstract

Topological domains in ferroelectrics^1-5 have received much attention recently owing to their novel functionalities and potential applications^6,7 in electronic devices. So far, however, such topological polar structures have been observed only in superlattices grown on oxide substrates, which limits their applications in silicon-based electronics. Here we report the realization of room-temperature skyrmion-like polar nanodomains in lead titanate/strontium titanate bilayers transferred onto silicon. Moreover, an external electric field can reversibly switch these nanodomains into the other type of polar texture, which substantially modifies their resistive behaviours. The polar-configuration-modulated resistance is ascribed to the distinct band bending and charge carrier distribution in the core of the two types of polar texture. The integration of high-density (more than 200 gigabits per square inch) switchable skyrmion-like polar nanodomains on silicon may enable non-volatile memory applications using topological polar structures in oxides.