Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme

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DF: Fachverband Dielektrische Festkörper

DF 10: Dielectric surfaces and interfaces

DF 10.2: Talk

Wednesday, March 24, 2010, 14:45–15:05, H11

Room temperature domain wall conductivity in Mg-doped lithium niobate — •Mathias Schröder, Alexander Haußmann, and Lukas M. Eng — Institut für Angewandte Photophysik, Technische Universität Dresden, D-01062 Dresden

Deposition routes for metallic and molecular nanowires on the 180^∘ domain walls of lithium niobate through ferroelectric lithography are well established [1,2]. However, a detailed understanding of the underlying processes is still missing, which implies the necessity of further systematic studies of specific domain wall properties.

Here, we report on conductive-AFM (c-AFM) measurements on 5 mol% Mg-doped congruent LiNbO₃ single crystals. We compare the c-AFM results with the domain distribution recorded by piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM). Surprisingly, we find an enhanced current density at room temperature and in air along the 180^∘ domain walls under UV-illumination above the band gap of 4 eV. This domain wall conductivity was then studied as a function of wavelength and light intensity. Implications for ferroelectric lithography on LiNbO₃ templates will be discussed.

[1] S.V. Kalinin et al., Nano Letters 2, 589 (2002).

[2] A. Haussmann et al., Nano Letters 9, 763 (2009).