Staff directory
David Pesquera Herrero
Senior Postdoctoral Researcher
RETAINING 2022
david.pesquera(ELIMINAR)@icn2.cat
Oxide Nanophysics
- ORCID: 0000-0003-0681-3371
Publications
2024
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Photostrictive Actuators Based on Freestanding Ferroelectric Membranes
Saptam Ganguly; David Pesquera; Daniel Moreno Garcia; Usman Saeed; Nona Mirzamohammadi; José Santiso; Jessica Padilla; José Manuel Caicedo Roque; Claire Laulhé; Felisa Berenguer; Luis Guillermo Villanueva; Gustau Catalán Advanced Materials; 2024. 10.1002/adma.202310198. IF: 27.400
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Switching Dynamics and Improved Efficiency of Free-Standing Antiferroelectric Capacitors
Saeed, Umair; Pesquera, David; Liu, Ying; Fina, Ignasi; Ganguly, Saptam; Santiso, Jose; Padilla-Pantoja, Jessica; Roque, Jose Manuel Caicedo; Liao, Xiaozhou; Catalan, Gustau Advanced Electronic Materials; 2024. 10.1002/aelm.202400102. IF: 5.300
2022
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Enabling ultra-low-voltage switching in BaTiO3
Jiang Y., Parsonnet E., Qualls A., Zhao W., Susarla S., Pesquera D., Dasgupta A., Acharya M., Zhang H., Gosavi T., Lin C.-C., Nikonov D.E., Li H., Young I.A., Ramesh R., Martin L.W. Nature Materials; 21 (7): 779 - 785. 2022. 10.1038/s41563-022-01266-6.
Single crystals of BaTiO3 exhibit small switching fields and energies, but thin-film performance is considerably worse, thus precluding their use in next-generation devices. Here, we demonstrate high-quality BaTiO3 thin films with nearly bulk-like properties. Thickness scaling provides access to the coercive voltages (<100 mV) and fields (<10 kV cm−1) required for future applications and results in a switching energy of <2 J cm−3 (corresponding to <2 aJ per bit in a 10 × 10 × 10 nm3 device). While reduction in film thickness reduces coercive voltage, it does so at the expense of remanent polarization. Depolarization fields impact polar state stability in thicker films but fortunately suppress the coercive field, thus driving a deviation from Janovec–Kay–Dunn scaling and enabling a constant coercive field for films <150 nm in thickness. Switching studies reveal fast speeds (switching times of ~2 ns for 25-nm-thick films with 5-µm-diameter capacitors) and a pathway to subnanosecond switching. Finally, integration of BaTiO3 thin films onto silicon substrates is shown. We also discuss what remains to be demonstrated to enable the use of these materials for next-generation devices. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.
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Freestanding complex-oxide membranes
Pesquera D., Fernández A., Khestanova E., Martin L.W. Journal of Physics Condensed Matter; 34 (38, 383001) 2022. 10.1088/1361-648X/ac7dd5.
Complex oxides show a vast range of functional responses, unparalleled within the inorganic solids realm, making them promising materials for applications as varied as next-generation field-effect transistors, spintronic devices, electro-optic modulators, pyroelectric detectors, or oxygen reduction catalysts. Their stability in ambient conditions, chemical versatility, and large susceptibility to minute structural and electronic modifications make them ideal subjects of study to discover emergent phenomena and to generate novel functionalities for next-generation devices. Recent advances in the synthesis of single-crystal, freestanding complex oxide membranes provide an unprecedented opportunity to study these materials in a nearly-ideal system (e.g. free of mechanical/thermal interaction with substrates) as well as expanding the range of tools for tweaking their order parameters (i.e. (anti-)ferromagnetic, (anti-)ferroelectric, ferroelastic), and increasing the possibility of achieving novel heterointegration approaches (including interfacing dissimilar materials) by avoiding the chemical, structural, or thermal constraints in synthesis processes. Here, we review the recent developments in the fabrication and characterization of complex-oxide membranes and discuss their potential for unraveling novel physicochemical phenomena at the nanoscale and for further exploiting their functionalities in technologically relevant devices. © 2022 IOP Publishing Ltd.
2021
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Correlating Surface Crystal Orientation and Gas Kinetics in Perovskite Oxide Electrodes
Gao R., Fernandez A., Chakraborty T., Luo A., Pesquera D., Das S., Velarde G., Thoréton V., Kilner J., Ishihara T., Nemšák S., Crumlin E.J., Ertekin E., Martin L.W. Advanced Materials; 33 (20, 2100977) 2021. 10.1002/adma.202100977. IF: 30.849
Solid–gas interactions at electrode surfaces determine the efficiency of solid-oxide fuel cells and electrolyzers. Here, the correlation between surface–gas kinetics and the crystal orientation of perovskite electrodes is studied in the model system La0.8Sr0.2Co0.2Fe0.8O3. The gas-exchange kinetics are characterized by synthesizing epitaxial half-cell geometries where three single-variant surfaces are produced [i.e., La0.8Sr0.2Co0.2Fe0.8O3/La0.9Sr0.1Ga0.95Mg0.05O3−δ/SrRuO3/SrTiO3 (001), (110), and (111)]. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and electrical conductivity relaxation measurements reveal a strong surface-orientation dependency of the gas-exchange kinetics, wherein (111)-oriented surfaces exhibit an activity >3-times higher as compared to (001)-oriented surfaces. Oxygen partial pressure ((Formula presented.))-dependent electrochemical impedance spectroscopy studies reveal that while the three surfaces have different gas-exchange kinetics, the reaction mechanisms and rate-limiting steps are the same (i.e., charge-transfer to the diatomic oxygen species). First-principles calculations suggest that the formation energy of vacancies and adsorption at the various surfaces is different and influenced by the surface polarity. Finally, synchrotron-based, ambient-pressure X-ray spectroscopies reveal distinct electronic changes and surface chemistry among the different surface orientations. Taken together, thin-film epitaxy provides an efficient approach to control and understand the electrode reactivity ultimately demonstrating that the (111)-surface exhibits a high density of active surface sites which leads to higher activity. © 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH
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Low-Voltage Magnetoelectric Coupling in Fe0.5Rh0.5/0.68PbMg1/3Nb2/3O3-0.32PbTiO3 Thin-Film Heterostructures
Zhao W., Kim J., Huang X., Zhang L., Pesquera D., Velarde G.A.P., Gosavi T., Lin C.-C., Nikonov D.E., Li H., Young I.A., Ramesh R., Martin L.W. Advanced Functional Materials; 31 (40, 2105068) 2021. 10.1002/adfm.202105068. IF: 18.808
The rapid development of computing applications demands novel low-energy consumption devices for information processing. Among various candidates, magnetoelectric heterostructures hold promise for meeting the required voltage and power goals. Here, a route to low-voltage control of magnetism in 30 nm Fe0.5Rh0.5/100 nm 0.68PbMg1/3Nb2/3O3-0.32PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) heterostructures is demonstrated wherein the magnetoelectric coupling is achieved via strain-induced changes in the Fe0.5Rh0.5 mediated by voltages applied to the PMN-PT. We describe approaches to achieve high-quality, epitaxial growth of Fe0.5Rh0.5 on the PMN-PT films and, a methodology to probe and quantify magnetoelectric coupling in small thin-film devices via studies of the anomalous Hall effect. By comparing the spin-flop field change induced by temperature and external voltage, the magnetoelectric coupling coefficient is estimated to reach ≈7 × 10−8 s m−1 at 325 K while applying a −0.75 V bias. © 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH
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Pyroelectric thin films - Past, present, and future
Velarde G., Pandya S., Karthik J., Pesquera D., Martin L.W. APL Materials; 9 (1, 010702) 2021. 10.1063/5.0035735. IF: 5.096
Pyroelectrics are a material class that undergoes a change in polarization as the temperature of the system is varied. This effect can be utilized for applications ranging from thermal imaging and sensing to waste-heat energy conversion to thermally driven electron emission. Here, we review recent advances in the study and utilization of thin-film pyroelectrics. Leveraging advances in modeling, synthesis, and characterization has provided a pathway forward in one of the more poorly developed subfields of ferroelectricity. We introduce the complex physical phenomena of pyroelectricity, briefly explore the history of work in this space, and highlight not only new advances in the direct measurement of such effects but also how our ability to control thin-film materials is changing our understanding of this response. Finally, we discuss recent advances in thin-film pyroelectric devices and introduce a number of potentially new directions the field may follow in the coming years. © 2021 Author(s).
2020
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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