DOE OSTI · 3002549
Autonomous Multistate Nanoencoding Using Combinatorial Ferroelectric Closure Domains in BiFeO 3
Abstract
Recent advances in ferroic materials have identified topological defects as promising candidates for enabling additional functionalities in future electronic systems. The generation of stable and customizable polar topologies is needed to achieve multistates that enable beyond-binary device architectures. Here, in this study, we show how to autonomously pattern on-demand highly tunable striped closure domains in pristine rhombohedral-phase BiFeO 3 thin films through precise scanning of a biased atomic force microscopy tip along carefully designed paths. By employing this strategy, we generate and manipulate closed-loop structures with high spatial resolution in an automated manner, allowing the creation of highly tunable and intricate topological domain structures that exhibit distinct polarization configurations without the need for electrode deposition or complex heterostructure growth. As a proof-of-concept for ferroelectric beyond-binary memory devices, we use such topological domains as multistates, engineering an alphabet and automating the symbolic writing/reading process using autonomous microscopy. The resulting information density is compared with that of current commercially available memory devices, demonstrating the potential of ferroelectric topological domains for multistate information storage applications.
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Checa, Marti [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS)] (ORCID:0000000326076866), Millan-Solsona, Ruben [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS)] (ORCID:0000000309127246), Liu, Yongtao [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS)] (ORCID:0000000301521783), Pant, Bharat [Univ. of Texas, Arlington, TX (United States)] (ORCID:0000000229120319), Puretzky, Alexander [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS)] (ORCID:0000000299964429), Cao, Ye [Univ. of Texas, Arlington, TX (United States)] (ORCID:0000000273657447), Kaur, Puneet [National Cheng Kung Univ., Tainan City (Taiwan)], Yang, Jan-Chi [National Cheng Kung Univ., Tainan City (Taiwan)] (ORCID:0000000235494392), Collins, Liam [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS)] (ORCID:0000000349469195), Domingo, Neus [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS)] (ORCID:0000000252296638), Kelley, Kyle P. [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS)] (ORCID:0000000276880484), Jesse, Stephen [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS)] (ORCID:0000000211688483), Vasudevan, Rama [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS)] (ORCID:0000000346928579). 2025-07-22. Autonomous Multistate Nanoencoding Using Combinatorial Ferroelectric Closure Domains in BiFeO 3. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.5c07423
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