Amount Awarded: $25,000
Oxide materials exhibit a broad range of tunable phenomena, including magnetism, multiferroicity, and superconductivity. Oxide interfaces are particularly intriguing. Their low symmetry combined with the sensitivity to electrostatics and strain leads to unusual properties. Recently, ferroelectric domain walls have attracted attention as a novel type of interface. These walls are spatially mobile and can be created and moved on demand. The additional degree of flexibility enables domain walls to take an active role in devices and hold a great potential as multifunctional 2D systems for nanoelectronics.
With this project we will consolidate and expand our UCB-NTNU collaboration on functional domain walls. Building up on our seminal discoveries in the field we will explore the possibility to engineer and control improper ferroelectric walls with the ultimate goal to realize novel 2D-systems for all-domain-wall nanoelectronics. Because of their unique robustness, improper ferroelectric walls are the ideal template for imposing the desired electronic behavior. We will create semiconducting and truly metallic walls that can serve as elementary building blocks in integrated nanoscale circuits, such as 2D transistors and capacitors. Additional functionality arises from the strong electronic correlations, which we will exploit to induce configurational changes, reversibly switching, e.g., between insulating and metallic states.