Ferroelectric behavior in exfoliated 2D Aurivillius oxide flakes of sub-unit cell thickness
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Date
2020-01-30
Authors
Keeney, Lynette
Smith, Ronan J.
Palizdar, Meghdad
Schmidt, Michael
Bell, Andrew J.
Coleman, Jonathan N.
Whatmore, Roger W.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Published Version
Abstract
Ferroelectricity in ultrasonically exfoliated flakes of the layered Aurivillius oxide Bi5Ti3Fe0.5Co0.5O15 with a range of thicknesses is studied. These flakes have relatively large areas (linear dimensions many times the film thickness), thus classifying them as 2D materials. It is shown that ferroelectricity can exist in flakes with thicknesses of only 2.4 nm, which equals one‐half of the normal crystal unit cell. Piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) demonstrates that these very thin flakes exhibit both piezoelectric effects and that the ferroelectric polarization can be reversibly switched. A new model is presented that permits the accurate modeling of the field‐on and field‐off PFM time domain and hysteresis loop responses from a ferroelectric during switching in the presence of charge injection, storage, and decay through a Schottky barrier at the electrode–oxide interface. The extracted values of spontaneous polarization, 0.04(±0.02) C m−2 and electrostrictive coefficient, 2(±0.1) × 10−2 m4 C−2 are in good agreement with other ferroelectric Aurivillius oxides. Coercive field scales with thickness, closely following the semi‐empirical scaling law expected for ferroelectric materials. This constitutes the first evidence for ferroelectricity in a 2D oxide material, and it offers the prospect of new devices that might use the useful properties associated with the switchable ferroelectric spontaneous polarization in a 2D materials format.
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Keywords
2D materials , Ferroelectrics , Semiconductors , Ultra-thin electronic
Citation
Keeney, L., Smith, R. J., Palizdar, M., Schmidt, M., Bell, A. J., Coleman, J. N. and Whatmore, R. W. (2020) 'Ferroelectric behavior in exfoliated 2D Aurivillius oxide flakes of sub-unit cell thickness', Advanced Electronic Materials, 1901264 (12pp). doi: 10.1002/aelm.201901264
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© 2020, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim. This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Keeney, L., Smith, R. J., Palizdar, M., Schmidt, M., Bell, A. J., Coleman, J. N. and Whatmore, R. W. (2020) 'Ferroelectric behavior in exfoliated 2D Aurivillius oxide flakes of sub-unit cell thickness', Advanced Electronic Materials, 1901264 (12pp), doi: 10.1002/aelm.201901264, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/aelm.201901264. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.