Current Flow Mapping in Conducting Ferroelectric Domain Walls using Scanning NV-Magnetometry

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Main Authors: McCluskey, Conor J., Dalzell, James, Kumar, Amit, Gregg, J. Marty
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author McCluskey, Conor J.
Dalzell, James
Kumar, Amit
Gregg, J. Marty
author_facet McCluskey, Conor J.
Dalzell, James
Kumar, Amit
Gregg, J. Marty
contents The electrical conductivity of parallel plate capacitors, with ferroelectric lithium niobate as the dielectric layer, can be extensively and progressively modified by the controlled injection of conducting domain walls. Domain wall-based memristor devices hence result. Microstructures, developed as a result of partial switching, are complex and so simple models of equivalent circuits, based on the collective action of all conducting domain wall channels acting identically and in parallel, may not be appropriate. Here, we directly map the current density in ferroelectric domain wall memristors in-situ, by mapping Oersted fields, using nitrogen vacancy centre microscopy. Current density maps were found to directly correlate with the domain microstructure, revealing that a strikingly small fraction of the total domain wall network is responsible for the majority of the current flow. This insight forces a two order of magnitude correction to the carrier densities, previously inferred from standard scanning probe or macroscopic electrical characterisation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_04614
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Current Flow Mapping in Conducting Ferroelectric Domain Walls using Scanning NV-Magnetometry
McCluskey, Conor J.
Dalzell, James
Kumar, Amit
Gregg, J. Marty
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Materials Science
The electrical conductivity of parallel plate capacitors, with ferroelectric lithium niobate as the dielectric layer, can be extensively and progressively modified by the controlled injection of conducting domain walls. Domain wall-based memristor devices hence result. Microstructures, developed as a result of partial switching, are complex and so simple models of equivalent circuits, based on the collective action of all conducting domain wall channels acting identically and in parallel, may not be appropriate. Here, we directly map the current density in ferroelectric domain wall memristors in-situ, by mapping Oersted fields, using nitrogen vacancy centre microscopy. Current density maps were found to directly correlate with the domain microstructure, revealing that a strikingly small fraction of the total domain wall network is responsible for the majority of the current flow. This insight forces a two order of magnitude correction to the carrier densities, previously inferred from standard scanning probe or macroscopic electrical characterisation.
title Current Flow Mapping in Conducting Ferroelectric Domain Walls using Scanning NV-Magnetometry
topic Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.04614