arXiv subjects

Junling Wang

Publications and source records attributed to Junling Wang.

35 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

Crossover between bulk and interface photovoltaic mechanisms in ferroelectric vertical heterostructure

Bulk photovoltaic (BPVE) effect in crystals lacking inversion symmetry offers great potential for optoelectronic applications due to its unique properties such as above bandgap photovoltage and switchable photocurrent. Because of their large spontaneous polarizations, ferroelectric materials are ideal platforms for studying BPVE. However, identifying the origin of experimentally observed photovoltaic response is often challenging due to the entanglement between bulk and interface effects, leading to much debate in the field. This issue is particularly pronounced in vertical heterostructures, where the two effects are comparable. Here we report a crossover between bulk- and interface-dominant response in vertical BiFeO3 heterostructures when changing the photon energy. We show that well above-bandgap excitation leads to bulk photovoltaic response, but band-edge excitation requires interface band bending to separate the photocarriers. Our findings not only help to clarify contradicting reports in the literature, but also lay the ground for a deeper understanding of ferroelectric photovoltaic effect and its applications in various devices.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2020

Van der Waals Layered Ferroelectric CuInP2S6: Physical Properties and Device Applications

Copper indium thiophosphate, CuInP2S6, has attracted much attention in recent years due to its van der Waals layered structure and robust ferroelectricity at room temperature. In this review, we aim to give an overview of the various properties of CuInP2S6, covering structural, ferroelectric, dielectric, piezoelectric and transport properties, as well as its potential applications. We also highlight the remaining questions and possible research directions related to this fascinating material and other compounds of the same family.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2020

Ferroelastic-switching-driven colossal shear strain and piezoelectricity in a hybrid ferroelectric

Materials that can produce large controllable strains are widely used in shape memory devices, actuators and sensors. Great efforts have been made to improve the strain outputs of various material systems. Among them, ferroelastic transitions underpin giant reversible strains in electrically-driven ferro/piezoelectrics and thermally- or magneticallydriven shape memory alloys. However, large-strain ferroelastic switching in conventional ferroelectrics is very challenging while magnetic and thermal controls are not desirable for applications. Here, we demonstrate an unprecedentedly large shear strain up to 21.5 % in a hybrid ferroelectric, C6H5N(CH3)3CdCl3. The strain response is about two orders of magnitude higher than those of top-performing conventional ferroelectric polymers and oxides. It is achieved via inorganic bond switching and facilitated by the structural confinement of the large organic moieties, which prevents the undesired 180-degree polarization switching. Furthermore, Br substitution can effectively soften the bonds and result in giant shear piezoelectric coefficient (d35 ~ 4800 pm/V) in Br-rich end of the solid solution, C6H5N(CH3)3CdBr3xCl3(1-x). The superior electromechanical properties of the compounds promise their potential in lightweight and high energy density devices, and the strategy described here should inspire the development of next-generation piezoelectrics and electroactive materials based on hybrid ferroelectrics.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2016

Magnetic fingerprint of interfacial coupling between CoFe and nanoscale ferroelectric domain walls

Magnetoelectric coupling in ferromagnet/multiferroic systems is often manifested in the exchange bias effect, which may have combined contributions from multiple sources, such as domain walls, chemical defects or strain. In this study we magnetically "fingerprint" the coupling behavior of CoFe grown on epitaxial BiFeO3 (BFO) thin films by magnetometry and first-order-reversal-curves (FORC). The contribution to exchange bias from 71°, 109° and charged ferroelectric domain walls (DWs) was elucidated by the FORC distribution. CoFe samples grown on BFO with 71° DWs only exhibit an enhancement of the coercivity, but little exchange bias. Samples grown on BFO with 109° DWs and mosaic DWs exhibit a much larger exchange bias, with the main enhancement attributed to 109° and charged DWs. Based on the Malozemoff random field model, a varying-anisotropy model is proposed to account for the exchange bias enhancement. This work sheds light on the relationship between the exchange bias effect of the CoFe/BFO heterointerface and the ferroelectric DWs, and provides a path for multiferroic device analysis and design.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2016

Oxygen vacancy induced room temperature metal-insulator transition in nickelates films and its potential application in photovoltaics

Oxygen vacancy is intrinsically coupled with magnetic, electronic and transport properties of transition-metal oxide materials and directly determines their multifunctionality. Here, we demonstrate reversible control of oxygen content by post-annealing at temperature lower than 300 degree centigrade and realize the reversible metal-insulator transition in epitaxial NdNiO3 films. Importantly, over six orders of magnitude in the resistance modulation and a large change in optical band gap are demonstrated at room temperature without destroying the parent framework and changing the p-type conductive mechanism. Further study revealed that oxygen vacancies stabilized the insulating phase at room temperature is universal for perovskite nickelates films. Acting as electron donors, oxygen vacancies not only stabilize the insulating phase at room temperature, but also induce a large magnetization of ~50 emu/cm3 due to the formation of strongly correlated Ni2+ t2g6eg2 states. The band gap opening is an order of magnitude larger than that of the thermally driven metal-insulator transition and continuously tunable. Potential application of the newly found insulating phase in photovoltaics has been demonstrated in the nickelates-based heterojunctions. Our discovery opens up new possibilities for strongly correlated perovskite nickelates.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2015

Anisotropic optical properties of rhombohedral and tetragonal thin film BiFeO$_3$ phases

The anisotropic optical properties of multiferroic BiFeO$_3$ thin films have been determined with Mueller matrix ellipsometry at room-temperature. The full dielectric tensors of tetragonal-like and rhombohedral-like BiFeO$_3$ phases epitaxially grown on LaAlO$_3$ and SrTiO$_3$ single crystal substrates, respectively, within the spectral range of 0.6 and 6.5 eV are reported. Strain-driven anisotropy changes and transition shifts are observed as well as evidence of sub-band gap many-particle excitations are found. The transition shifts, mostly to higher energies for the highly strained tetragonal-like BiFeO$_3$ phase on LaAlO$_3$, are indicative of band structure differences. Additionally, optical modelling, confirmed by piezoelectric force microscopy studies, revealed that the average polarization direction of bivariant BiFeO$_3$ on LaAlO$_3$ is not parallel to the crystallographic [001] direction but tilted by about $7^{\circ}$. Spectral weight analyses reveal phase-dependent differences underlining that theoretical calculations of optical spectra need further improvement to appropriately account for electronic and excitonic correlations to fully understand multiferroic BiFeO$_3$.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2013

Large tensile strain induced monoclinic MB phase in BiFeO3 epitaxial thin films on PrScO3 substrate

Crystal and domain structures of tensile-strained BiFeO3 films grown on orthorhombic (110)o PrScO3 substrates were investigated. All films possess a MB-type monoclinic structure with 109o stripe domains oriented along the [ī10]o direction. For films thicknesses less than ~40 nm, presence of well-ordered domains is proved by the detection of satellite peaks in synchrotron x-ray diffraction studies. For thicker films, For thicker films, only the Bragg reflections from tilted domains were detected. This is attributed to the broader domain size distribution in thicker films.Using planar electrodes,the in-plane polarization of the MB phase is determined to be 85 uC/cm2, which is much larger than that of compressive strained BiFeO3 films. Our results further reveal that the substrate monoclinic distortion plays a major role in determining the stripe domain formation of the rhombohedral ferroic epitaxial thin films, which sheds light to the understanding of elastic domain structure evolution in many other functional oxide thin films as well.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2013

Mechanism of Polarization Fatigue in BiFeO3: the Role of Schottky Barrier

By using piezoelectric force microscopy and scanning Kelvin probe microscopy, we have investigated the domain evolution and space charge distribution in planar BiFeO3 capacitors with different electrodes. It is observed that charge injection at the film/electrode interface leads to domain pinning and polarization fatigue in BiFeO3. Furthermore, the Schottky barrier at the interface is crucial for the charge injection process. Lowering the Schottky barrier by using low work function metals as the electrodes can also improve the fatigue property of the device, similar to what oxide electrodes can achieve.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2012

Study of strain effect on in-plane polarization in epitaxial BiFeO3 thin films using planar electrodes

Epitaxial strain plays an important role in determining physical properties of perovskite ferroelectric oxide thin films. However, it is very challenging to directly measure properties such as polarization in ultrathin strained films using traditional sandwich capacitor devices, because of high leakage current. We employed a planar electrode device with different crystallographical orientations between electrodes along different electric field orientation to directly measure the in-plane polarization-electric field (P-E) hysteresis loops in fully strained thin films. At high misfit strains such as -4.4%, the pure Tetrogonal-like phase is obtained and its polarization vector is constrained to lie in the (010) plane with a significantly large in-plane component, ~44 μC/cm2. First-principle calculations are carried out in parallel, and provide a good agreement with the experimental results. Our results pave the way to design in-plane devices based on T-like BFO and the strategy proposed here can be expanded to study all other similar strained multiferroic ultrathin films.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2012

Domain tuning in mixed-phase BiFeO3 thin films using vicinal substrates

The structural and ferroelectric domain variants of highly-strained BiFeO3 films grown on vicinal LaSrAlO4 substrates were studied by piezoelectric force microscopy and high-resolution X-ray reciprocal space mapping. Through symmetry breaking of the substrate surface, ferroelastic domain variants in the highly-strained MC phase BiFeO3 can be greatly reduced. Single-domain film can be obtained on substrates with large miscut angle, which is accompanied by the reduction of structural variants in the mixed-phase nanodomains. These findings lead to better understanding of the phase evolution and polarization rotation process in the strain-driven morphotropic phase system.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2012

Characterization and manipulation of mixed phase domains in highly-strained BiFeO3 thin films

The novel strain-driven morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) in highly-strained BiFeO3 thin film is featured by ordered mixed phase nanodomains (MPNs). Through scanning probe microscopy and synchrotron X-ray diffraction, eight structural variants of the MPNs are identified. Detailed polarization configurations within the MPNs are resolved using angular-dependent piezoelectric force microscopy. Guided by the obtained results, deterministic manipulation of the MPNs has been demonstrated by controlling the motion of the local probe. These findings are important for in-depth understanding of the ultrahigh electromechanical response arising from phase transformation between competing phases, enabling future explorations on the electronic structure, magnetoelectricity and other functionalities in this new MPB system.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2011

Temperature-driven evolution of hierarchical nanodomain structure in tetragonal-like BiFeO3 films

Transmission electron microscopy study of tetragonal-like BiFeO3 films reveals a hitherto unreported hierarchical nanodomain structure. The 30-50 nm wide stripe domains with {110} domain walls consist of a substructure of lamellar nanodomains of 8-10 nm width in a herringbone-like arrangement. In situ heating and cooling reveals a reversible transition from the hierarchical nanodomain structure to a tweed-like domain structure which is accompanied by a first-order phase transition near 120 °C with a thermal hysteresis.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2011

Coexistence of Ferroelectric Triclinic Phases and Origin of Large Piezoelectric Responses in Highly Strained BiFeO3 films

The structural evolution of the strain-driven morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) in BiFeO3 films has been investigated using synchrotron x-ray diffractometry in conjunction with scanning probe microscopy. Our results demonstrate the existence of mixed-phase regions that are mainly made up of two heavily tilted ferroelectric triclinic phases. Analysis of first-principles computations suggests that these two triclinic phases originate from a phase separation of a single monoclinic state accompanied by elastic matching between the phase-separated states. These first-principle calculations further reveal that the intrinsic piezoelectric response of these two low-symmetry triclinic phases is not significantly large, which thus implies that the ease of phase transition between these two energetically close triclinic phases is likely responsible for the large piezoelectric response found in the BiFeO3 films near its MPB. These findings not only enrich the understandings of the lattice and domain structure of epitaxial BiFeO3 films but may also shed some light on the origin of enhanced piezoelectric response near MPB.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2011

Nanoscale domains in strained epitaxial BiFeO3 thin Films on LaSrAlO4 Substrate

BiFeO3 thin films with various thicknesses were grown epitaxially on (001) LaSrAlO4 single crystal substrates using pulsed laser deposition. High resolution x-ray diffraction measurements revealed that a tetragonal-like phase with c-lattice constant ~4.65 Å is stabilized by a large misfit strain. Besides, a rhombohedral-like phase with c-lattice constant ~3.99 Å was also detected at film thickness of ~50 nm and above to relieve large misfit strains. In-plane piezoelectric force microscopy studies showed clear signals and self-assembled nanoscale stripe domain structure for the tetragonal-like regions. These findings suggest a complex picture of nanoscale domain patterns in BiFeO3 thin films subjected to large compressive strains.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2010

Low-Symmetry Monoclinic Phases and Polarization Rotation Path Mediated By Epitaxial Strain in Multiferroic BiFeO3 Thin Films

A morphotropic phase boundary driven by epitaxial strain has been observed in a lead-free multiferroic BiFeO3 thin films and the strain-driven phase transitions were widely reported to be iso-symmetric Cc-Cc ones by recent works. In this paper, we suggest that the tetragonal-like BiFeO3 phase identified in epitaxial films on (001) LaAlO3 single crystal substrates is monoclinic MC. This MC phase is different from MA type monoclinic phase reported in BiFeO3 films grown on low mismatch substrates, such as SrTiO3. This is confirmed not only by synchrotron x-ray studies but also by piezoresponse force microscopy measurements. The polarization vectors of the tetragonal-like phase lie in the (100) plane, not the (110) plane as previously reported. A phenomenological analysis was proposed to explain the formation of MC Phase. Such a low symmetry MC phase, with its linkage to MA phase and the multiphase coexistence open an avenue for large piezoelectric response in BiFeO3 films and shed light on a complete understanding towards possible polarization rotation paths and enhanced multiferroicity in BiFeO3 films mediated by epitaxial strain. This work may also aid the understanding of developing new lead-free strain-driven morphotropic phase boundary in other ferroic systems.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2008

DC Leakage behavior and Conduction Mechanism in (BiFeO3)m(SrTiO3)m Superlattices

Leakage current behavior of (BiFeO3)m(SrTiO3)m superlattice structures was studied and analyzed at different temperatures (303-473K) in the light of various models. While bulk limited Poole-Frenkel emission was observed to dominate the leakage current in the temperature range of 303 - 383 K, the space charge limited conduction was observed up to 473 K. With a Poole-Frenkel emission type of conduction, the activation energy range of 0.06 - 0.2 eV was calculated. The physical parameters, calculated from the analysis correlates with the intrinsic properties. The analysis of leakage current facilitates, interface engineering of heterostructures for device applications.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2005

Low Symmetry Phase in (001) BiFeO$_3$ Epitaxial Constrained Thin Films

The lattice of (001)-oriented BiFeO$_3$ epitaxial thin film has been identified by synchrotron x-ray diffraction. By choosing proper scattering zones containing the fixed (001) reflection, we have shown that low-symmetry phases similar to a $M_A$ phase exist in the thin film at room temperature. These results demonstrate a change in phase stability from rhombohedral in bulk single crystals, to a modified monoclinic structure in epitaxial thin films.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗