Dresden 2026 – scientific programme
Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help
FM: Fachverband Funktionsmaterialien
FM 18: German-French Focus Session: (Anti)ferroic states – ferroelectrics, ferroelastics and antiferroelectrics II
FM 18.7: Talk
Thursday, March 12, 2026, 12:15–12:30, BEY/0138
Dynamical tuning of the depletion region at a single ferroelectric domain wall — •Jiali He1, Ruben Dragland1, Jan Schultheiss1, Zewu Yan2,3, Edith Bourret3, and Dennis Meier4 — 1NTNU, Norway — 2ETH Zurich, Switzerland — 3LBNL, USA — 4University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
Ferroelectric domain walls (DWs) are promising building blocks for future nanoelectronics, combining ultra-small feature size with emergent device-relevant behaviors. Most studies so far focused on bulk crystals and thin films, where the measured response reflects convoluted contributions from, e.g., the hidden sub-surface wall structures and the networks they form. The intrinsic behavior of individual DWs thus often remains unclear. In my talk, I will present the extraction of a single insulating ferroelectric DW, situated in a 1-µm-thick ErMnO3 lamella, mounted on a conductive back electrode. This configuration enables a well-defined top-bottom current path using an AFM tip as movable top electrode. Consistent with previous measurements on single crystals, we observe that the initially thin insulating wall (∼200 nm electronic width) transforms under applied bias into a narrow conductive core surrounded by a broad asymmetric depletion region, leading to a fivefold increase in apparent wall width. Systematic bias variation demonstrates a highly tunable electronic wall width, manifesting as voltage-controlled expansion and contraction of the depletion region. The results corroborate that functional DW properties known from crystals are transferable to nano-structured device-relevant systems, revealing new possibilities for electronic signal control.
Keywords: Ferroelectric domain walls; Single domain wall; Domain-wall-based electronic devices