Publications
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Beyond Expectation: Advanced Materials Design, Synthesis, and Processing to Enable Novel Ferroelectric Properties and Applications
Kim J., Lupi E., Pesquera D., Acharya M., Zhao W., Velarde G.A.P., Griffin S., Martin L.W. MRS Advances; 2020. 10.1557/adv.2020.344. IF: 0.000
Ferroelectrics and related materials (e.g., non-traditional ferroelectrics such as relaxors) have long been used in a range of applications, but with the advent of new ways of modeling, synthesizing, and characterizing these materials, continued access to astonishing breakthroughs in our fundamental understanding come each year. While we still rely on these materials in a range of applications, we continue to re-write what is possible to be done with them. In turn, assumptions that have underpinned the use and design of certain materials are progressively being revisited. This perspective aims to provide an overview of the field of ferroelectric/relaxor/polar-oxide thin films in recent years, with an emphasis on emergent structure and function enabled by advanced synthesis, processing, and computational modeling. Copyright © The Author(s), 2020, published on behalf of Materials Research Society by Cambridge University Press.
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Beyond Substrates: Strain Engineering of Ferroelectric Membranes
Pesquera D., Parsonnet E., Qualls A., Xu R., Gubser A.J., Kim J., Jiang Y., Velarde G., Huang Y.-L., Hwang H.Y., Ramesh R., Martin L.W. Advanced Materials; 32 (43, 2003780) 2020. 10.1002/adma.202003780. IF: 27.398
Strain engineering in perovskite oxides provides for dramatic control over material structure, phase, and properties, but is restricted by the discrete strain states produced by available high-quality substrates. Here, using the ferroelectric BaTiO3, production of precisely strain-engineered, substrate-released nanoscale membranes is demonstrated via an epitaxial lift-off process that allows the high crystalline quality of films grown on substrates to be replicated. In turn, fine structural tuning is achieved using interlayer stress in symmetric trilayer oxide-metal/ferroelectric/oxide-metal structures fabricated from the released membranes. In devices integrated on silicon, the interlayer stress provides deterministic control of ordering temperature (from 75 to 425 °C) and releasing the substrate clamping is shown to dramatically impact ferroelectric switching and domain dynamics (including reducing coercive fields to <10 kV cm−1 and improving switching times to <5 ns for a 20 µm diameter capacitor in a 100-nm-thick film). In devices integrated on flexible polymers, enhanced room-temperature dielectric permittivity with large mechanical tunability (a 90% change upon ±0.1% strain application) is demonstrated. This approach paves the way toward the fabrication of ultrafast CMOS-compatible ferroelectric memories and ultrasensitive flexible nanosensor devices, and it may also be leveraged for the stabilization of novel phases and functionalities not achievable via direct epitaxial growth. © 2020 Wiley-VCH GmbH
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Control of lateral composition distribution in graded films of soluble solid systems A1-xBx by partitioned dual-beam pulsed laser deposition
Sakai J., Roque J.M.C., Vales-Castro P., Padilla-Pantoja J., Sauthier G., Catalan G., Santiso J. Coatings; 10 (6, 540) 2020. 10.3390/COATINGS10060540. IF: 2.436
Lateral compositionally-graded thin films are powerful media for the observation of phase boundaries aswell as for high-throughputmaterials exploration.We herein propose amethod to prepare epitaxial lateral compositionally-graded films using a dual-beampulsed laser deposition (PLD)method with two targets separated by a partition. Tuning the ambient pressure and the partition-substrate gap makes it possible to control of the gradient length of the deposits at the small sizes (≤ 10 mm) suitable for commercial oxide single crystal substrates. A simple Monte Carlo simulation qualitatively reproduced the characteristic features of the lateral thickness distribution. To demonstrate this method, we prepared (1-x)PbTiO3-xPbZrO3 and (1-x)LaMnO3-xLa0.6Sr0.4MnO3 films with lateral composition gradient widths of 10 and 1 mm, respectively, with the partitioned dual PLD. © 2020 by the authors.
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Investigation of The Cellular Response to Bone Fractures: Evidence for Flexoelectricity
Núñez-Toldrà R., Vasquez-Sancho F., Barroca N., Catalan G. Scientific Reports; 10 (1, 254) 2020. 10.1038/s41598-019-57121-3. IF: 3.998
The recent discovery of bone flexoelectricity (strain-gradient-induced electrical polarization) suggests that flexoelectricity could have physiological effects in bones, and specifically near bone fractures, where flexoelectricity is theoretically highest. Here, we report a cytological study of the interaction between crack stress and bone cells. We have cultured MC3T3-E1 mouse osteoblastic cells in biomimetic microcracked hydroxyapatite substrates, differentiated into osteocytes and applied a strain gradient to the samples. The results show a strong apoptotic cellular response, whereby mechanical stimulation causes those cells near the crack to die, as indicated by live-dead and caspase staining. In addition, analysis two weeks post-stimulation shows increased cell attachment and mineralization around microcracks and a higher expression of osteocalcin –an osteogenic protein known to be promoted by physical exercise. The results are consistent with flexoelectricity playing at least two different roles in bone remodelling: apoptotic trigger of the repair protocol, and electro-stimulant of the bone-building activity of osteoblasts. © 2020, The Author(s).
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James F. Scott (1942-2020)
Catalan G., Dawber M., Gregg M., Morrison F., Ramesh R., Zubko P. Nature materials; 19 (6): 580. 2020. 10.1038/s41563-020-0692-x. IF: 38.663
[No abstract available]
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Mechanical Softness of Ferroelectric 180° Domain Walls MECHANICAL SOFTNESS of FERROELECTRIC 180 DEGREE ... STEFANI CHRISTINA et al.
Stefani C., Ponet L., Shapovalov K., Chen P., Langenberg E., Schlom D.G., Artyukhin S., Stengel M., Domingo N., Catalan G. Physical Review X; 10 (4, 041001) 2020. 10.1103/PhysRevX.10.041001. IF: 12.577
Using scanning probe microscopy, we measure the out-of-plane mechanical response of ferroelectric 180° domain walls and observe that, despite separating domains that are mechanically identical, the walls appear mechanically distinct-softer-compared to the domains. This effect is observed in different ferroelectric materials (LiNbO3, BaTiO3, and PbTiO3) and with different morphologies (from single crystals to thin films), suggesting that the effect is universal. We propose a theoretical framework that explains the domain wall softening and justifies that the effect should be common to all ferroelectrics. The lesson is, therefore, that domain walls are not only functionally different from the domains they separate, but also mechanically distinct. © 2020 authors. Published by the American Physical Society. Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.
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Photoflexoelectric effect in halide perovskites
Shu L., Ke S., Fei L., Huang W., Wang Z., Gong J., Jiang X., Wang L., Li F., Lei S., Rao Z., Zhou Y., Zheng R.-K., Yao X., Wang Y., Stengel M., Catalan G. Nature Materials; 19 (6): 605 - 609. 2020. 10.1038/s41563-020-0659-y. IF: 38.663
Harvesting environmental energy to generate electricity is a key scientific and technological endeavour of our time. Photovoltaic conversion and electromechanical transduction are two common energy-harvesting mechanisms based on, respectively, semiconducting junctions and piezoelectric insulators. However, the different material families on which these transduction phenomena are based complicate their integration into single devices. Here we demonstrate that halide perovskites, a family of highly efficient photovoltaic materials1–3, display a photoflexoelectric effect whereby, under a combination of illumination and oscillation driven by a piezoelectric actuator, they generate orders of magnitude higher flexoelectricity than in the dark. We also show that photoflexoelectricity is not exclusive to halides but a general property of semiconductors that potentially enables simultaneous electromechanical and photovoltaic transduction and harvesting in unison from multiple energy inputs. © 2020, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.
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Self-Pixelation Through Fracture in VO2 Thin Films
Laura Rodríguez, Elena del Corro, Michele Conroy, Kalani Moore, Felip Sandiumenge, Neus Domingo, José Santiso, Gustau Catalan Acs Applied Electronic Materials; 2 (5): 1433 - 1439. 2020. 10.1021/acsaelm.0c00199. IF: 0.000
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Strain-Engineered Ferroelastic Structures in PbTiO3 Films and Their Control by Electric Fields
Langenberg E., Paik H., Smith E.H., Nair H.P., Hanke I., Ganschow S., Catalan G., Domingo N., Schlom D.G. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces; 12 (18): 20691 - 20703. 2020. 10.1021/acsami.0c04381. IF: 8.758
We study the interplay between epitaxial strain, film thickness, and electric field in the creation, modification, and design of distinct ferroelastic structures in PbTiO3 thin films. Strain and thickness greatly affect the structures formed, providing a two-variable parameterization of the resulting self-assembly. Under applied electric fields, these strain-engineered ferroelastic structures are highly malleable, especially when a/c and a1/a2 superdomains coexist. To reconfigure the ferroelastic structures and achieve self-assembled nanoscale-ordered morphologies, pure ferroelectric switching of individual c-domains within the a/c superdomains is essential. The stability, however, of the electrically written ferroelastic structures is in most cases ephemeral; the speed of the relaxation process depends sensitively on strain and thickness. Only under low tensile strain - as is the case for PbTiO3 on GdScO3 - and below a critical thickness do the electrically created a/c superdomain structures become stable for days or longer, making them relevant for reconfigurable nanoscale electronics or nonvolatile electromechanical applications. Copyright © 2020 American Chemical Society.
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Temperature-independent giant dielectric response in transitional BaTiO3 thin films
Everhardt A.S., Denneulin T., Grünebohm A., Shao Y.-T., Ondrejkovic P., Zhou S., Domingo N., Catalan G., Hlinka J., Zuo J.-M., Matzen S., Noheda B. Applied Physics Reviews; 7 (1, 011402) 2020. 10.1063/1.5122954. IF: 17.054
Ferroelectric materials exhibit the largest dielectric permittivities and piezoelectric responses in nature, making them invaluable in applications from supercapacitors or sensors to actuators or electromechanical transducers. The origin of this behavior is their proximity to phase transitions. However, the largest possible responses are most often not utilized due to the impracticality of using temperature as a control parameter and to operate at phase transitions. This has motivated the design of solid solutions with morphotropic phase boundaries between different polar phases that are tuned by composition and that are weakly dependent on temperature. Thus far, the best piezoelectrics have been achieved in materials with intermediate (bridging or adaptive) phases. But so far, complex chemistry or an intricate microstructure has been required to achieve temperature-independent phase-transition boundaries. Here, we report such a temperature-independent bridging state in thin films of chemically simple BaTiO3. A coexistence among tetragonal, orthorhombic, and their bridging low-symmetry phases are shown to induce continuous vertical polarization rotation, which recreates a smear in-transition state and leads to a giant temperature-independent dielectric response. The current material contains a ferroelectric state that is distinct from those at morphotropic phase boundaries and cannot be considered as ferroelectric crystals. We believe that other materials can be engineered in a similar way to contain a ferroelectric state with gradual change of structure, forming a class of transitional ferroelectrics. Similar mechanisms could be utilized in other materials to design low-power ferroelectrics, piezoelectrics, dielectrics, or shape-memory alloys, as well as efficient electro- and magnetocalorics. © 2020 Author(s).
