Charged domains in ferroelectric, polycrystalline yttrium manganite thin films resolved with scanning electron microscopy

Venkata Rao Rayapati; Danilo Bürger; Nan Du; Cornelia Kowol; Daniel Blaschke; Hartmut Stöcker; Patrick Matthes; Rajkumar Patra; Ilona Skorupa; Stefan E Schulz; Heidemarie Schmidt

doi:10.1088/1361-6528/ab8b09

Charged domains in ferroelectric, polycrystalline yttrium manganite thin films resolved with scanning electron microscopy

Nanotechnology. 2020 Jul 31;31(31):31LT01. doi: 10.1088/1361-6528/ab8b09. Epub 2020 Apr 20.

Authors

Venkata Rao Rayapati¹, Danilo Bürger, Nan Du, Cornelia Kowol, Daniel Blaschke, Hartmut Stöcker, Patrick Matthes, Rajkumar Patra, Ilona Skorupa, Stefan E Schulz, Heidemarie Schmidt

Affiliation

¹ Department Back-End of Line, Fraunhofer Institute for Electronic Nano Systems, 09126 Chemnitz, Germany.

PMID: 32311692
DOI: 10.1088/1361-6528/ab8b09

Abstract

We have investigated ferroelectric charged domains in polycrystalline hexagonal yttrium manganite thin films (Y₁Mn₁O₃, Y_0.95Mn_1.05O₃, Y₁Mn_0.99Ti_0.01O₃, and Y_0.94Mn_1.05Ti_0.01O₃) by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) in secondary electron emission mode with a small acceleration voltage. Using SEM at an acceleration voltage of 1.0 kV otherwise homogenous surface charging effects are reduced, polarization charges can be observed and polarization directions (±P_z) of the ferroelectric domains in the polycrystalline thin films can be identified. Thin films of different chemical composition have been deposited by pulsed laser deposition on Pt/SiO₂/Si structures under otherwise same growth conditions. Using SEM it has been shown that different charged domain density networks are existing in polycrystalline yttrium manganite thin films.