Controlled manipulation of conductive ferroelectric domain walls and nanoscale domains in BiFeO3 thin films

Recently, there is a surge of research interest in configurable ferroelectric conductive domain walls which have been considered as possible fundamental building blocks for future electronic devices. In this work, by using piezoresponse force microscopy and conductive atomic force microscopy, we demonstrated the controlled manipulation of various conductive domain walls in epitaxial BiFeO3 thin films, e.g. neutral domain walls (NDW) and charged domain walls (CDWs). More interestingly, a specific type of nanoscale domains was also identified, which are surrounded by highly conductive circular CWDs. Similar nanoscale domains can also be controlled created and erasured by applying local field via conductive probe, which allow nondestructive current readout of different domain states with a large on/off resistance ratio up to 102. The results indicate the potential to design and develop high-density non-volatile ferroelectric memories by utilizing these programable conductive nanoscale domain walls. [Display omitted] •Controlled manipulation of various types conductive domain walls in BiFeO3 thin films by applying electric bias.•A specific type of nanoscale domains with highly conductive circular charge domain walls was identified.•The nanoscale domain walls have high potential in high-density memory storage.