The hysteretic piezoelectric response in LaAlO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures can provide important insights into the mechanism for interfacial conductance and its metastability under various conditions. We have performed a variety of nonlocal piezoelectric force microscopy experiments on 3 unit cell LaAlO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures. A hysteretic piezoresponse is observed under various environmental and driving conditions. The hysteresis is suppressed when either the sample is placed in vacuum or the interface is electrically grounded. We present a simple physical model which can account for the observed phenomena.
@article{arxiv.1208.2687,
title = {Nonlocal Piezoresponse of LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Heterostructures},
author = {Mengchen Huang and Feng Bi and Chung-Wung Bark and Sangwoo Ryu and Kwang-Hwan Cho and Chang-Beom Eom and Jeremy Levy},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1208.2687},
year = {2012}
}
Comments
13 pages, 4 figures; Special Issue of journal of FERROELECTRICS on Multifunctional Ferroics and Related Materials in honor of Dr. Amar Bhalla, 2012