Metallic conductance is seen in ferroelectric nanodomains

The development is expected to prove useful in the creation of electronics at the nanoscale.

Ferroelectric materials, which switch their polarisation with the application of an electric field, have long been used in devices such as ultrasound machines and sensors. Discoveries about ferroelectrics’ electronic properties are said to be opening up possibilities of applications in nanoscale electronics and information storage.

In a paper published in the American Chemical Society’s Nano Letters, the ORNL-led team demonstrated metallic conductivity in a ferroelectric film that otherwise acts as an insulator.

According to a statement, this phenomenon of an insulator-metal transition was predicted more than 40 years ago by theorists but has eluded experimental proof until now.

‘This finding unambiguously identifies a new conduction channel that percolates through the insulating matrix of the ferroelectric, which opens potentially exciting possibilities to “write” and “erase” circuitry with nanoscale dimensions,’ said lead author Peter Maksymovych, of ORNL’s Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences.