April 7 - 11, 2025
Seattle, Washington
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2025 MRS Spring Meeting & Exhibit
EL08.08.00

Periodic Whirling Polar Textures in BaTiO3/SrTiO3 Superlattices on Silicon

When and Where

Apr 10, 2025
9:15am - 9:45am
Summit, Level 4, Room 433

Presenter(s)

Co-Author(s)

Catherine Dubourdieu1,2

Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie1,Freie Universität Berlin2

Abstract

Catherine Dubourdieu1,2

Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie1,Freie Universität Berlin2
Ferroelectric polar textures are characterized by regions with distinct polarization orientations, forming complex structures such as vortices, skyrmions or hopfions. Understanding and controlling topological polar textures open up exciting possibilities for advanced applications in memories, logic devices or sensors. So far, all monolithically grown polar textures have been realized on oxide substrates (such as SrTiO3 or scandates), which limits their applicability. I will present in this talk the stabilization of polar textures in (BaTiO3/SrTiO3)n superlattices epitaxially grown on silicon. A major difference with superlattices grown on oxide substrates is the tensile strain, which is imparted by the Si substrate upon cooling from the growth temperature down to room temperature. The superlattices were synthesized by molecular beam epitaxy. Various BaTiO3 and SrTiO3 thicknesses, in the range of 2-5 nm, were investigated. Advanced scanning transmission electron microscopy methods were used to map the Ti-atom displacements and to determine the strain landscape. These local analyses were complemented by synchrotron X-ray diffraction. Periodic textures such as alternating a/c domains, vortices and polar waves will be discussed for the different layer thicknesses, as well as the strain state associated to them. The evolution of the polar domains with temperature will be presented.

Keywords

operando | scanning probe microscopy (SPM) | scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM)

Symposium Organizers

Morgan Trassin, ETH Zurich
John Heron, University of Michigan
Dennis Meier, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Michele Conroy, Imperial College London

Session Chairs

Marty Gregg
Yu-Tsun Shao

In this Session