Material of the Month March 2016 |
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Functionality by Defects | ||
Electrostatic force microscopy reveals abruptly changing and geometrically confined electron conductance in SrMnO3 thin films grown on a (La,Sr)(Al,Ta)O3 substrate. Using density functional theory calculations, this effect is explained to originate from tensile strain-induced oxygen vacancies that preferentially accumulate at ferroelectric domain walls, where they induce a 24 meV potential barrier that prevents electron conduction below 400K.
This work was carried out in the group of Prof. Ulrich Aschauer in collaboration with Prof. Manfred Fiebig (ETHZ), Prof. Nicola Spaldin (ETHZ), and Prof. José Pardo (Zaragoza). References:
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