Giant and accessible conductivity of charged domain walls in lithium niobate
Ferroelectric domain walls are nm-sized interfaces between sections of different allowed values of the spontaneous polarization, the so-called domains. These walls - neutral or charged - can be created, displaced, deleted, and recreated again in ferroelectric materials. [1-3] Owing to the recent progress in the studies of ferroelectrics, they are expected to be functional active elements of the future nano-electronics.[1,4,5] Metallic-like conductivity of charged domain walls (CDWs) in insulating ferroelectrics, predicted in 1970s6 and detected recently,[7-10] is especially attractive for applications. This important effect is still in its infancy. The electric currents are small, the access to the conductivity is hampered by contact barriers, and stability is low because of sophisticated domain structures and/or proximity of the Curie point. Here, we report on giant and accessible persistent CDW conductivity in lithium niobate (LN) crystals (LiNbO3) - a vital material for photonics. [12] Our results are by far superior to the data known for other materials: Increase of LN conductivity by more than 14 orders of magnitude owing to CDWs, access to the effect via Ohmic and semi-Ohmic contacts, and its high stability for temperatures of up to 70 °C are demonstrated. It is made clear why this big effect was missed earlier [11,25] in LN. Our results demonstrate that strong conductivity of CDWs is available in simple ferroelectric materials, possessing only two allowed orientations of the spontaneous polarization, far from the Curie point. Also, CDW functionalities can be combined with linear and nonlinear optical phenomena. [14,15] Our findings allow new generations of adaptive-optical elements, of electrically controlled integrated-optical chips for quantum photonics, and of advanced LN-semiconductor hybrid optoelectronic devices.