On-demand nanoengineering of in-plane ferroelectric topologies

Marti Checa; Bharat Pant; Alexander Puretzky; Bogdan Dryzhakov; Rama K Vasudevan; Yongtao Liu; Pravin Kavle; Arvind Dasgupta; Lane W Martin; Ye Cao; Liam Collins; Stephen Jesse; Neus Domingo; Kyle P Kelley

doi:10.1038/s41565-024-01792-1

On-demand nanoengineering of in-plane ferroelectric topologies

Nat Nanotechnol. 2024 Sep 26. doi: 10.1038/s41565-024-01792-1. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Marti Checa¹, Bharat Pant², Alexander Puretzky³, Bogdan Dryzhakov³, Rama K Vasudevan³, Yongtao Liu³, Pravin Kavle^{4

5}, Arvind Dasgupta^{4

5}, Lane W Martin^{4

5

6}, Ye Cao², Liam Collins³, Stephen Jesse³, Neus Domingo³, Kyle P Kelley³

Affiliations

¹ Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA. checam@ornl.gov.
² Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, USA.
³ Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA.
⁴ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
⁵ Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.
⁶ Departments of Materials Science and NanoEngineering, Chemistry, and Physics and Astronomy and the Rice Advanced Materials Institute, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA.

PMID: 39327514
DOI: 10.1038/s41565-024-01792-1

Abstract

Hierarchical assemblies of ferroelectric nanodomains, so-called super-domains, can exhibit exotic morphologies that lead to distinct behaviours. Controlling these super-domains reliably is critical for realizing states with desired functional properties. Here we reveal the super-switching mechanism by using a biased atomic force microscopy tip, that is, the switching of the in-plane super-domains, of a model ferroelectric Pb_0.6Sr_0.4TiO₃. We demonstrate that the writing process is dominated by a super-domain nucleation and stabilization process. A complex scanning-probe trajectory enables on-demand formation of intricate centre-divergent, centre-convergent and flux-closure polar structures. Correlative piezoresponse force microscopy and optical spectroscopy confirm the topological nature and tunability of the emergent structures. The precise and versatile nanolithography in a ferroic material and the stability of the generated structures, also validated by phase-field modelling, suggests potential for reliable multi-state nanodevice architectures and, thereby, an alternative route for the creation of tunable topological structures for applications in neuromorphic circuits.