Nanoscale ferroelectric field-effect writing and reading using scanning tunnelling spectroscopy

摘要

Control of the density of mobile charge carriers using electric fields is widely used in a variety of metal-insulator-semiconductor structures and is the governing principle behind the operation of field-effect transistors.Ferroelectric materials possessing a switchable and non-volatile polarization field can be used as insulating layers,revealing new opportunities for device applications.Advances in material processing and in particular complex oxide thin-film growth mean that high-quality field-effect devices can be based on ferroelectric/metallic oxide heterostrucrures.In addition,advances in local probe techniques such as atomic force microscopy allow them to be used in the imaging and study of small ferroelectric domain structures in bulk crystals and thin films.