Related papers: Strain fluctuations unlock ferroelectricity in wur…
Recent experiments demonstrated robust ferroelectricity in Mg-doped ZnO (ZMO) of the wurtzite structure, hinting at a promising strategy to substantially expand the list of ferroelectrics by doping conventional piezoelectrics. We…
The discovery of ferroelectricity in AlScN allowed the first clear observation of the effect in the wurtzite crystal structure, resulting in a material with a previously unprecedented combination of very large coercive fields (2-5 MV/cm)…
Wurtzite-ZnO is a wide-bandgap polar material with a ferroelectric-switching barrier that is too high to utilize, but the barrier can be reduced and switching observed in substituted materials such as Zn0.5Mg0.5O. Here, we seek to…
Ferroelectric materials promise exceptional attributes including low power dissipation, fast operational speeds, enhanced endurance, and superior retention to revolutionize information technology. However, the practical application of…
Binary ferroelectric nitrides are promising materials for information technologies and power electronics. However, polarization switching in these materials is highly unusual. From the structural perspective, polarization reversal is…
Thin films of aluminum hafnium nitride (Al$_{1-x}$Hf$_{x}$N) were synthesized via reactive magnetron sputtering for Hf contents up to $x$ = 0.13. X-ray diffraction showed a single $c$-axis oriented wurtzite phase for all films. Hard X-ray…
The advent of wurtzite ferroelectrics is enabling a new generation of ferroelectric devices for computer memory that has the potential to bypass the von Neumann bottleneck, due to their robust polarization and silicon compatibility.…
Ferroelectric materials are characterized by the presence of an electric dipole that can be reversed by application of an external electric field, a feature that is exploited in ferroelectric memories. All ferroelectrics are piezoelectric,…
Much attention has been given recently to flexible and wearable integrated-electronic devices, with a strong emphasis on real-time sensing, computing and communication technologies. Thin ferroelectric films exhibit switchable polarization…
The discovery of wurtzite ferroelectrics opens new frontiers in polar materials, yet their behavior at cryogenic temperatures remains unexplored. Here, we reveal unprecedented ferroelectric properties in ultrathin (10 nm)…
Zirconia and hafnia based thin films have attracted tremendous attention in the last decade due to their unexpected ferroelectric behavior at the nanoscale, which facilitates the downscaling of ferroelectric devices. The present work…
Wurtzite-type Al$_{1-x}$Sc$_x$N solid solutions grown by metal organic chemical vapour deposition are for the first time confirmed to be ferroelectric. The film with 230 nm thickness and x = 0.15 exhibits a coercive field of 5.5 MV/cm at a…
Advances in complex oxide heteroepitaxy have highlighted the enormous potential of utilizing strain engineering via lattice mismatch to control ferroelectricity in thin-film heterostructures. This approach, however, lacks the ability to…
SrTiO$_3$ is an incipient ferroelectric on the verge of a polar instability, which is avoided at low temperatures by quantum fluctuations. Within this unusual quantum paraelectric phase, superconductivity persists despite extremely dilute…
The wealth of complex polar topologies recently found in nanoscale ferroelectrics result from a delicate balance between the materials intrinsic tendency to develop a homogeneous polarization and the electric and mechanic boundary…
The elasticity and piezoelectricity of zinc oxide (ZnO) crystals and single layers are investigated from the first-principles calculations. It is found that a ZnO thin film less than three Zn-O layers prefers a planar graphite-like…
The coupling between strain gradients and polarization, known as flexoelectricity, offers a new mechanism to control the functionality of dielectric materials. However, for the effect to be practically attractive, dynamic control of the…
Ferroelectrics display spontaneous and switchable electrical polarization. Until recently, ferroelectricity was believed to disappear at the nanoscale; now, nano-ferroelectrics are being considered in numerous applications. This renewed…
We report first-principle atomistic simulations on the effect of local strain gradients on the nanoscale domain morphology of free-standing PbTiO$_3$ ultrathin films. First, the ferroelectric properties of free films at the atomic level are…
Ferroelectric switching is unambigiously demonstrated for the first time in a III-V semiconductor based material: AlScN -- A discovery which could help to satisfy the urgent demand for thin film ferroelectrics with high performance and good…