Browsing by Author "Feng, Bin"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4

Atomic mechanism of polarization-controlled surface reconstruction in ferroelectric thin films
(2016-04-01)
Gao, Peng
;
Liu, Heng-Jui
;
Huang, Yen-Lin
;
Chu, Ying-Hao
;
Ishikawa, Ryo
At the ferroelectric surface, the broken translational symmetry induced bound charge should significantly alter the local atomic configurations. Experimentally revealing the atomic structure of ferroelectric surface, however, is very challenging due to the strong spatial variety between nano-sized domains, and strong interactions between the polarization and other structural parameters. Here, we study surface structures of Pb(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O-3 thin film by using the annular bright-field imaging. We find that six atomic layers with suppressed polarization and a charged 180 degrees domain wall are at negatively poled surfaces, no reconstruction exists at positively poled surfaces, and seven atomic layers with suppressed polarization and a charged 90 degrees domain wall exist at nominally neutral surfaces in ferroelastic domains. Our results provide critical insights into engineering ferroelectric thin films, fine grain ceramics and surface chemistry devices. The state-of-the-art methodology demonstrated here can greatly advance our understanding of surface science for oxides.
Double thermoelectric power factor of a 2D electron system
(2018-06-20)
Zhang, Yuqiao
;
Feng, Bin
;
Hayashi, Hiroyuki
;
Chang, Cheng-Ping
;
Sheu, Yu-Miin
Two-dimensional electron systems have attracted attention as thermoelectric materials, which can directly convert waste heat into electricity. It has been theoretically predicted that thermoelectric power factor can be largely enhanced when the two-dimensional electron layer is far narrower than the de Broglie wavelength. Although many studies have been made, the effectiveness has not been experimentally clarified thus far. Here we experimentally clarify that an enhanced two-dimensionality is efficient to enhance thermoelectric power factor. We fabricated superlattices of [N unit cell SrTi1-xNbxO3 vertical bar 11 unit cell SrTiO3](10)-there are two different de Broglie wavelength in the SrTi1-xNbxO3 system. The maximum power factor of the superlattice composed of the longer de Broglie wavelength SrTi1-xNbxO3 exceeded similar to 5 mWm(-1) K-2, which doubles the value of optimized bulk SrTi1- xNbxO3. The present approach-use of longer de Broglie wavelength-is epoch-making and is fruitful to design good thermoelectric materials showing high power factor.
Possible absence of critical thickness and size effect in ultrathin perovskite ferroelectric films
(2017-06-06)
Gao, Peng
;
Zhang, Zhangyuan
;
Li, Mingqiang
;
Ishikawa, Ryo
;
Feng, Bin
Although the size effect in ferroelectric thin films has been known for long time, the underlying mechanism is not yet fully understood and whether or not there is a critical thickness below which the ferroelectricity vanishes is still under debate. Here, we directly measure the thickness-dependent polarization in ultrathin PbZr0.2Ti0.8O3 films via quantitative annular bright field imaging. We find that the polarization is significantly suppressed for films <10-unit cells thick (similar to 4 nm). However, approximately the polarization never vanishes. The residual polarization is similar to 16 mu Ccm(-2) (similar to 17%) at 1.5-unit cells (similar to 0.6 nm) thick film on bare SrTiO3 and similar to 22 mu Ccm(-2) at 2-unit cells thick film on SrTiO3 with SrRuO3 electrode. The residual polarization in these ultrathin films is mainly attributed to the robust covalent Pb-O bond. Our atomic study provides new insights into mechanistic understanding of nanoscale ferroelectricity and the size effects.
Thickness dependence of transport behaviors in SrRuO3 /SrTiO3 superlattices
(2020-01-03)
Wu, Ping-Chun
;
Song, Haili
;
Yuan, Ye
;
Feng, Bin
;
Ikuhara, Yuichi
Ultrathin oxide films have attracted considerable attention due to the potential for the integration of next-generation devices. However, the transport behaviors of the ultrathin oxide films are yet to be explored due to the high resistance caused by the strong influence of the interface and substrates. In this paper, an attempt is made to engineer the transport behaviors in ultrathin oxides. To exclude the high-resistance issue, conductive SrRuO3 with thickness down to two unit cells is embedded in insulating SrTiO3 in the form of superlattices. With precise control of the thickness in each layer, the transport behaviors, as well as the anomalous Hall effects, in SrRuO3 can be systematically manipulated. The analysis indicates that the diversity of the anomalous Hall effects is attributed to the change of Berry curvatures. The results give a pathway to the control of physical properties in ultrathin oxide systems by thickness engineering.