Researchers strain to improve electrical material and it's worth it

Feb 11, 2013
University of Illinois engineers devised a method of making thin films of ferroelectric material with twice the strain of traditional methods, giving the films exceptional electric properties. Professor Lane Martin, right, led the work with graduate student Karthik Jambunathan, center, and postdoctoral researcher Vengadesh Mangalam. Credit: L. Brian Stauffer


Led by Lane Martin, a professor of , the group published its results in the journal .

, with special polarization properties, are used in a number of advanced . When electricity is applied, they can switch their polarization, or the direction of their internal electric field, which makes them useful in devices such as computer memories and actuators. Ferroelectric are especially useful in aerospace applications because they are less susceptible to radiation than traditional semiconductors.

Strain in these materials can alter their properties and improve their performance. A lot of research in ferroelectric materials has focused on making strained thin films with alternating layers only a few thick of materials with slightly different crystal structures.

"It turns out that if you put pressure on certain types of materials, the properties completely change," Martin said. "In our case we administer pressure by straining or stretching thin versions of these materials like one would stretch plastic wrap to fit on a bowl. You can induce things that don't exist at ; you can make phases and properties that don't exist."

The films are made of lead zirconate titanate (commonly called PZT). The relative amounts of (Zr) and titanium (Ti) in the films determine the shape of the crystals. Traditionally, films of PZT have been made up of a single composition, grown on a substrate with a slightly different crystal structure to cause strain in the PZT. However, too much strain causes the PZT to revert to its original crystal structure. This limits researchers' ability to change the properties of these materials for better device performance.

The Illinois researchers overcame this limitation by gradually shifting the concentrations of Zr and Ti as they grew the , incrementally changing the . From layer to layer, the structures are very similar, yet the composition of the PZT at the top and bottom of the film is very different, transitioning from a PZT composition with 80 percent Zr to 80 percent Ti. This gradual change, instead of the usual layered approach, results in little localized strain but large overall strain.

"We have taken a material with similar mechanical properties to a dinner plate, the same kind of hardness, and effectively figured out a way to stretch that plate without breaking it," Martin said. "With our method, we've been able to extend our ability to strain these materials. We go to the nanoscale so we can pull on these films and dramatically change the shape, and that affects the properties."

Thanks to the large strain, the compositionally graded PZT films not only have improved properties, but also entirely new properties. Most notably, the films have a built-in electric field, called an intrinsic potential. This means that it can perform some functions without needing an external current or field applied to it. In addition, it means that the material has a preferred polarity, which opens the door for new applications.

"This sort of built-in field is very useful," said Karthik Jambunathan, a graduate student and co-author of the paper. "Otherwise you have to engineer similar effects using features not native to the materials to have the same thing happen, but it is much more difficult and less easily controlled. Here, it's grown into the material to begin with."

For example, ferroelectric materials widely have been used in memory applications that rely on spontaneous polarization. However, to read a bit of data in computer memories made with a traditional ferroelectric material, its polarity is switched. This means that every time the bit is read, it has to be re-written and compared to a reference bit. But if the material had a built-in electric potential, engineers could make bits that would not need to have their polarity switched to be read, so computer components made with the new material could be smaller, faster and longer lasting.

Now the Illinois team plans to further explore potential applications, as well as apply their gradient film technique to other types of ferroelectric materials in search of even more novel and unexpected properties.

"This is just the beginning," Martin said. "There are an infinite number of varieties of gradients that you could think about. This is a smooth gradient, but we could skew it, or change what the end members are. Each one of these is going to give its own set of structures and potential properties that we haven't even begun to scratch the surface of. I think the capacity for finding new types of materials and is really open here."

Explore further: Study helps uncover mechanism behind solid-solid phase transitions

More information: The paper, "Unexpected Crystal and Domain Structures and Properties in Compositionally Graded PbZr1-xTixO3 Thin Films," is available online at… /adma.201204240/full

Related Stories

New research uncovers path to defect-free thin films

Sep 20, 2012


Ferroelectric oxides do the twist

Apr 12, 2012


Structural consequences of nanolithography

Aug 11, 2011

( -- Users from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Center for Nanophase Materials Science, working with the X-Ray Microscopy Group, have discovered structural effects accompanying the ...

Recommended for you

New complex oxides could advance memory devices

Sep 17, 2014


User comments : 0