@article{f677603aab044f99be1ed83946bc944b,
title = "The role of lattice dynamics in ferroelectric switching",
abstract = "Reducing the switching energy of ferroelectric thin films remains an important goal in the pursuit of ultralow-power ferroelectric memory and logic devices. Here, we elucidate the fundamental role of lattice dynamics in ferroelectric switching by studying both freestanding bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3) membranes and films clamped to a substrate. We observe a distinct evolution of the ferroelectric domain pattern, from striped, 71° ferroelastic domains (spacing of ~100 nm) in clamped BiFeO3 films, to large (10{\textquoteright}s of micrometers) 180° domains in freestanding films. By removing the constraints imposed by mechanical clamping from the substrate, we can realize a ~40% reduction of the switching voltage and a consequent ~60% improvement in the switching speed. Our findings highlight the importance of a dynamic clamping process occurring during switching, which impacts strain, ferroelectric, and ferrodistortive order parameters and plays a critical role in setting the energetics and dynamics of ferroelectric switching.",
author = "Qiwu Shi and Eric Parsonnet and Xiaoxing Cheng and Natalya Fedorova and Peng, {Ren Ci} and Abel Fernandez and Alexander Qualls and Xiaoxi Huang and Xue Chang and Hongrui Zhang and David Pesquera and Sujit Das and Dmitri Nikonov and Ian Young and Chen, {Long Qing} and Martin, {Lane W.} and Huang, {Yen Lin} and Jorge {\'I}{\~n}iguez and Ramamoorthy Ramesh",
note = "Funding Information: The work at Berkeley is supported by ASCENT, one of the six SRC-JUMP centers. Support from Intel Corporation under the FEINMAN Program (E.P.) is also gratefully acknowledged. A.F. acknowledges support from the Army Research Office under Grant W911NF-21-1-0118. Q.W.S. acknowledges support from International Visiting Program for Excellent Young Scholars of SCU and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. U20A20212). D.P. acknowledges support from the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sk{\l}odowska-Curie grant agreement No. 79712 and from the National Science Foundation under grant Grant DMR-1708615 for work done at Berkeley. L.W.M. and R.R. acknowledge support from the Army Research Office under the ETHOS MURI via cooperative agreement W911NF-21-2-0162. N.F and J.{\'I}. acknowledge support from the Semiconductor Research Corporation and Intel, via contract no. 2018-IN-2865. The thermodynamic calculations and phase-field simulations of X.C. and L.-Q.C. are supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, under award no. DE-SC0020145. Y.L.H acknowledges the financial support from “Center for the Semiconductor Technology Research” from The Featured Areas Research Center Program within the framework of the Higher Education Sprout Project by MOE in Taiwan, and the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan, under Grant MOST 110-2634-F-009-027. R.-C. P. acknowledges supports from the Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 51902247) and Natural Science Foundation of Shanxi Province (grant no. 2020JQ-059). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022, The Author(s).",
year = "2022",
month = dec,
doi = "10.1038/s41467-022-28622-z",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "13",
journal = "Nature Communications",
issn = "2041-1723",
publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",
number = "1",
}