Influence of the electric field on structural transformations and phase boundary for PMg1/3Nb2/3O3-xPbTiO3 single crystals

The influence of different regimes of application of a dc electric field (0 < E < 4 kV/cm) on structural phase transformations and behavior of the phase boundary in [001]-oriented single crystals PMg_1/3Nb_2/3O₃-xPbTiO₃ (PMN-xPT) with compositions near the morphotropic phase boundary (x = 28 and 32%) and far from it (x = 13%) has been investigated. The studies have been performed using optical methods, namely, optical transmittance and small-angle light scattering. It has been revealed that the number, symmetry, and stability of field-induced phases depend on the regime of electric field application. During cooling of the PMN-28PT crystals from the cubic phase in the field (FC regime), the tetragonal phase is induced already in weak fields of ∼0.5 kV/cm, whereas even a field of 3 kV/cm is insufficient for inducing this phase by applying the field in the ferroelectric phase. In the PMN-32PT crystal (which has a composition closer to the morphotropic phase boundary as compared to that of the PMN-28PT crystal) in the FC regime and when the field is applied in the ferroelectric phase, the tetragonal phase is induced already in weak electric fields, even though this phase in the latter case appears to be unstable. The E-T phase diagrams have been constructed for different regimes of field application. The possible factors responsible for the observed differences have been discussed.     

超低温高电场下GaAs的电子太赫兹功耗谱的研究

利用自由空间太赫兹电光取样方法,测量了在高电场下,GaAs中受飞秒激光脉冲激发的电子所辐射出的太赫兹电磁波,发现从样品中辐射出的和电子加速度成正比的太赫兹电磁波电场强度E_THz（t）,表现出双极特性.通过分析GaAs中辐射出的太赫兹电磁波的傅里叶变换谱,首次实验上得到在阶跃电场下的GaAs的电子太赫兹功耗谱.研究发现,当电场小于50 kV/cm时,由电子谷间散射引起的负功耗（即增益）的截止频率ν_c,随着电场的增大而增大;当电场大于50 kV/cm时,负功耗的截止频率ν_c开始在750 GHz（10 K）附近饱和. 关键词： 太赫兹 非平衡载流子 功耗谱 谷间散射     

Silicon nanoparticle charge trapping memory cell

A charge trapping memory with 2 nm silicon nanoparticles (Si NPs) is demonstrated. A zinc oxide (ZnO) active layer is deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD), preceded by Al₂O₃ which acts as the gate, blocking and tunneling oxide. Spin coating technique is used to deposit Si NPs across the sample between Al₂O₃ steps. The Si nanoparticle memory exhibits a threshold voltage (V_t) shift of 2.9 V at a negative programming voltage of –10 V indicating that holes are emitted from channel to charge trapping layer. The negligible measured V_t shift without the nanoparticles and the good re‐ tention of charges (>10 years) with Si NPs confirm that the Si NPs act as deep energy states within the bandgap of the Al₂O₃ layer. In order to determine the mechanism for hole emission, we study the effect of the electric field across the tunnel oxide on the magnitude and trend of the V_t shift. The V_t shift is only achieved at electric fields above 1 MV/cm. This high field indicates that tunneling is the main mechanism. More specifically, phonon‐assisted tunneling (PAT) dominates at electric fields between 1.2 MV/cm < E < 2.1 MV/cm, while Fowler–Nordheim tunneling leads at higher fields (E > 2.1 MV/cm). (© 2014 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Response of the capacitance of a planar La0.67Ca0.33MnO3/SrTiO3/La0.67Ca0.33MnO3 heterostructure to an electric field

Manganite film electrodes were integrated with a spacer layer of strontium titanate to produce an epitaxial La_0.67Ca_0.33MnO₃/(1000 nm)SrTiO₃/La_0.67Ca_0.33MnO₃ (LCMO/STO/LCMO) heterostructure by laser ablation. At T = 300 K, the mechanical stresses in the STO layer relaxed to a considerable extent, while the LCMO electrodes were found to be under biaxial lateral tensile strain, with the lattice unit cell of the top electrode distorted considerably stronger (a _∥/a _⊥ ≈ 1.026) than that of the bottom electrode (≈1.008) (a _∥ and a _⊥ are the unit cell parameters in the substrate plane and along the normal to its surface, respectively). The reciprocal of the capacitance C of the plane-parallel LCMO/STO/LCMO film capacitors thus formed increased almost linearly with increasing temperature T in the range 50–250 K. At T < 100 K, the capacitance C decreased by approximately 50% in an electric field E = 40 kV/cm. After the electric field E was varied as 0 → + 100 kV/cm → 0, the capacitance C decreased by approximately 3% and the maximum in the C(E, T > 200 K) dependence shifted by approximately 9 kV/cm with respect to the point E = 0.     

Conductivity anisotropy ofn-type silicon in the range of warm and hot carriers

The electric conductivity ofn-type silicon was measured as a function of the field intensity in different crystallographic directions at temperatures between 78 and 275 °K. From the data at medium fields (range of warm carriers) the coefficientsβ ₀ andγ ₀ ofSchmidt-Tiedemann's anisotropy theory were determined. Especially at low temperatures these coefficients are different for lightly and heavily doped crystals. The differences can be explained by the influence of ionized impurity scattering in addition to lattice scattering. The repopulation of the energy valleys of the conduction band as a function of the field intensity was calculated from the ratioγ ₀/β ₀ and — in the range of hot carriers — from the conductivities measured in <001> and <111> directions. A maximum increase of population of a cool valley was found to be between 0.5 and 1.2 of the zero-field population, depending on the particular sample, the field intensity being about 0.5 kV/cm and the lattice temperature 89 °K.     

Electrical properties of highly (111)-oriented lead zirconate thin films

Antiferroelectric PbZrO₃ thin films were grown on Pt/Ti/SiO₂/Si substrates with predominant (111) orientation using a sol-gel process. The Pt/PbZrO₃/Pt film capacitor showed well-saturated hysteresis loops at an applied voltage of 5 V with remanent polarisation (P_r) and coercive electric field (E_c) values of 8.97 μC/cm² and 162 kV/cm, respectively. The leakage current density of the highly (111)-oriented PbZrO₃ film was less than 1.0×10⁻⁷ A/cm² over electric field ranges from 0 to 105 kV/cm. The conduction current depended on the voltage polarity. The PbZrO₃/Pt interface forms a Schottky barrier at electric fields from 20 to 160 kV/cm. The dielectric relaxation current behaviour of Pt/PbZrO₃/Pt capacitor obeys the well-known Curie-Von Schweidler law at electric field of 20-80 kV/cm, the currents have contributions of both dielectric relaxation current and leakage current.     

Selectively dopedn-AlxGa1−xAs/GaAs heterostructures with high-mobility two-dimensional electron gas for field effect transistors

The transport properties of warm and hot electrons in selectively dopedn-Al _x Ga_1–x As/GaAs heterostructures created by electric fields up to 500 V/cm were studied by Hall effect, conductivity, and Shubnikov-de Haas measurements at lattice temperatures from 4.2 to 300 K. Hall measurements revealed a substantial decrease of electron mobility and also of sheet electron concentration at 77 K with enhanced electric field. The accelerated 2D electrons are partly scattered into the low-mobility first excited (E ₁) subband, and they are partly trapped in immobile states located in the Al_xGa_1–xAs near the interface. Consequently, two differentv(E) characteristics were obtained at 77 K. The 2D electrons populating only the lowest (E ₀) subband exhibit a velocity of v-2×10⁷ cm/s at 500 V/cm, while the averaged velocity due to all electrons reaches a value of v-1.5×10⁷cm/s at 500 V/cm. The analysis of the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations and Fast Fourier transformation of the data manifested that the 2D electrons are very rapidly accelerated at 4.2 K and achieve electron temperatures much higher than the lattice temperature at electric fields as low as 1 V/cm. The major cooling process for these electrons is scattering into the low-mobilityE ₁ subband.     

Electric-field influence on the neutron diffuse scattering near the ferroelectric transition of Sr0.61Ba0.39Nb2O6

ABSTRACT

Uniaxial relaxor ferroelectric Sr_0.61Ba_0.39Nb₂O₆ single crystal has been investigated in the vicinity of its phase transition using neutron scattering and dielectric spectroscopy. A global-type thermal hysteresis is evidenced by both techniques in the ferroelectric phase and up to about 15 K above T_c. In addition, a part of the transverse neutron diffuse scattering in the 001 Brillouin zone, presumably related to static nanodomain structure, can be suppressed by prior poling the crystal in electric field of 3 kV/cm. The remaining part of the transverse neutron diffuse scattering and the real part of permittivity show a similar temperature dependence. The temperature position of the maximal scattering intensity T_max depends significantly on the scattering wave vector. T_max shifts monotonically to higher temperature with the increasing wave vector in all investigated cooling and heating regimes. It is concluded that the critical fluctuations have space correlations which depend on frequency and wave vector.     

Effect of high electric field on the dc conduction of TeO2-V2O5-MoO3 amorphous bulk material

Effect of high electric field on the dc conductivity of TeO₂-V₂O₅-MoO₃ amorphous bulk samples with different molar ratio of each component was investigated with gap-type electrode arrangement. At low electric fields, the current-voltage (I–V) characteristics has a linear shape, while at high electric fields (>10³ V/cm), bulk samples show nonlinear behavior (nonohmic conduction) and current-voltage characteristics shows increasing deviation from Ohm’s law with increasing current density. High-field effect of Pool-Frenkel type was observed at electrical fields about 10³−10⁴ V/cm. In addition, positive deviation from Pool-Frenkel effect was observed when a field higher than about 10⁴ V/cm was applied.     

Nature of conduction via impurities in uncompensated silicon

The static conductivity σ(E) and photoconductivity (PC) at radiation frequencies ħω=10 and 15 meV in Si doped with shallow impurities (density N=10¹⁶−6×10¹⁶ cm⁻³, ionization energy ε₁≃45 meV) with compensation K=10⁻⁴−10⁻⁵ in electric fields E=10–250 V/cm are measured at liquid-helium temperatures T. Special measures are taken to prevent the high-frequency part of the background radiation (ħω>16 meV) from striking the sample. It is found that the conductivity σ(E) is due to carrier motion along the D ⁻ band, which is filled with carriers under the influence of the field E. In fields E<E _q (E _q ≃100–200 V/cm) the carrier motion consists of hops along localized D ⁻ states in a 10–15 meV energy band below the bottom of the free band (energy ε=ε₁); for E>E _q carriers drift along localized D ⁻ states with energy ε∞ε₁−10 meV. An explanation is proposed for the threshold behavior of the field dependence of the photo-and static conductivities. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 66, No. 4, 232–236 (25 August 1997)     

Integrated optical electric field sensor based on a Bragg grating in lithium niobate

We demonstrate a new sensor concept for the measurement of oscillating electric fields that is based on Bragg gratings in LiNbO₃:Ti channel waveguides. This miniaturized sensor that works in a retroreflective scheme does not require metallic electrodes and can be directly immersed in an oscillating electric field. The electric field induces a shift of the Bragg wavelength of the reflection grating that is due to the electro-optic effect. The operating point of the sensor is chosen by adjusting the laser wavelength to the slope of the spectral reflectivity function of the grating. In this way the magnitude of an external electric field is measured precisely as the amplitude of modulated reflected light intensity by using a lock-in amplifier. The sensor principle is demonstrated by detecting low-frequency electric fields ranging from 50 V/cm to 5 kV/cm without any conducting parts of the sensor head. Furthermore, the ability of the sensor to determine the three-dimensional orientation of an external electric field by a single rotation along the waveguide direction is demonstrated. PACS 42.40.Eq; 42.82.-m; 42.82.Et     

X-ray structural and optical studies of PbZrO0.598Ti0.042O3 single crystals in electric fields up to 4×107 V/m

Field dependences of the rhombohedral unit cell parameter a and birefringence of crystals of lead titanate zirconate with 4.2 mol % additions of Ti are found to be linear in the range from zero to 400 kV/cm. The linear and bulk expansions of the crystal in a field of 400 kV/cm are close to 0.25 and 0.7% respectively. The coefficient of the longitudinal piezoeffect f ₃₃ computed based on data from Fx-ray structural analysis exhibit a strong nonlinearity: it increases monotonically by a factor of 7–8 as the electric field increases from zero to 200 kV/cm, and reaches saturation at stronger fields. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 40, 327–329 (February 1998)     

The structure of the glass phase of Rb1−x(ND4)xD2PO4

X-ray scattering techniques have been used to study the diffuse scattering from a single crystal of Rb_1–x(ND₄)_xD₂PO₄ withx=0.65. This system has a structural glass phase at low temperatures resulting from the competing ferroelectric interactions of RbD₂PO₄ and antiferroelectric interactions of (ND₄)D₂PO₄. The diffuse scattering shows a broad peak with a maximum occurring at a wavevector of about 0.3a ^*, and the intensity of these peaks is surprisingly different for wavevectorsq on opposite sides of the Bragg reflections. A model of the D bonding is developed which suggests that the diffuse scattering arises from the interaction between ferroelectric displacements alongc, ferroelectric displacements alongb, and transverse acoustic modes polarized alongb andc. The model accounts for the incommensurate wavevector and, qualitatively, for the intensity of the diffuse scattering around different Bragg reflections. The temperature dependence of the scattering is also measured.     

In‐situ X‐ray diffraction study of an electric field induced phase transition and giant strain in Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3–x %BaTiO3 lead‐free single crystals

A giant electric field (E) induced strain of ε = 0.60% has been observed for Na_0.5Bi_0.5TiO₃–5.6%BaTiO₃ single crystals under E = 20 kV/cm at 130 °C. In‐situ X‐ray diffraction (XRD) revealed that this induced transition was between pseudocubic and tetragonal structures. Our work provides a potential alternative to lead‐based piezoelectric materials. (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

High electric-field-induced strain of Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 crystals in multilayer actuators

An optimum composition range (29%≤x≤31%) of 〈001〉 oriented (1−x)Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃-xPbTiO₃(PMNT) crystals was ascertained for multilayer actuator applications, which exhibited high-strain and low-hysteresis behavior. A −1.5 kV/cm negative E-field can be applied to PMNT ferroelectric samples with low hysteresis. Forty layer actuators with individual element sizes of 7×7×0.7 mm³ were fabricated under identical processing conditions using two different materials: (1) single crystal PMNT and (2) commercial PZT-SF ceramics. Under free-load conditions, 48 μm displacements can been achieved in PMNT actuators at electric fields ranging from −1.5 to 10 kV/cm, which is more than twice the displacement of the PZT-SF actuators driven from −10 to 10 kV/cm. Under 4 kg loading, the displacements in PMNT stain actuators are decreased to 42.5 μm.     

Interband and intraband radiation from the n-InGaAs/GaAs heterostructures with quantum wells under the conditions of injection in high lateral electric fields

The interband and intraband radiation from the n-InGaAs/GaAs heterostructures with the double and triple tunnel coupled and selectively doped quantum wells (QWs), which is appeared under the lateral electric field and in the presence of hole injection from the anode contact, has been investigated. A steep increase of the interband radiation intensity was found at the fields of E≥1.7 kV/cm. This effect should be related to the big lifetime of the injected charge carriers (~10⁻⁶ s) which exceeds by three orders of magnitude the lifetime in the similar bulk direct-band semiconductor. Its reason lies in spatial separation of the injected holes and electrons between coupled wells, firstly, by the built-in transverse electric field between wells and, secondly, due to the real-space transfer of carriers heated by the lateral electric field from the wide well to the narrow δ-doped one. Furthermore, an increase of the carrier concentration due to injection leads to an increase of that transition intensity and, consequently, to an intensity increase of the radiative intersubband transitions of carriers in QWs which results in a steep intensity increase of the far (50–120 µm) infrared radiation.     

Evolution of the optical properties of Pb<Subscript>0.94</Subscript>Ba<Subscript>0.06</Subscript>Sc<Subscript>0.5</Subscript>Nb<Subscript>0.5</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript> (PBSN-6) solid solution single crystals caused by a static electric field

The electric-field-induced variation of the optical properties (small-angle light scattering, birefringence) of PBSN-6 solid solutions was studied. It was found that in the absence of an electric field, the cubic nonpolar matrix contains, at temperatures below the dielectric permittivity maximum, spontaneously polarized regions of the ferroelectric phase not less than 10⁴ Å in size. It was shown that a weak electric field (～0.4 kV/cm) is capable of inducing a kinetic phase transition to the ferroelectric state, with the temperature of this transformation depending on the sample heating rate. The destruction of the induced state was accompanied by a sharp peak in the temperature dependence of the small-angle light scattering intensity (indicating the percolation nature of the transition) and was independent of the sample heating rate. The boundaries of stability of the induced state in various modes of application of an external electric field were determined, and the E-T phase diagram was constructed.     

Transient energy transfer during hologram formation in LiNbO3 in external electric field

Volume phase hologram recording in pure LiNbO₃ crystals with applied electric field E ≈ 5 kV/cm is accompanied by considerable intensity redistribution of the writing beams by transient energy transfer. Practically the whole intensity of the donor beam may be transferred into the weak acceptor beam with initial intensity 3% from total incident intensity. This effect originates from transient phase mismatch of the recorded phase grating and fringe pattern in the applied electric field when the interacting beams have different intensities.     

Electrical properties and memory effect in the field effect transistor based on organic ferroelectric insulator and pentacene

We have fabricated a field effect transistor (FET) based on an organic ferroelectric insulator and molecular conductor, and investigated the electrical properties and memory effects on the PEN-FET. We have observed a drastic change in the drain current at around the coercive electric fieldE _c of the organic ferroelectric insulator in not only a FET (PEN-FET) based on a pentacene (PEN) film but also a FET (IPEN-FET) based on an iodine doped PEN film. The magnitude of the change of the drain current for the IPEN-FET is 200 times larger than that for the PEN-FET. It is expected from these results that the PEN-FET (especially the IPEN-FET) is an improvement in such devices, since it operates at a low gate electric field accompanied by the appearance of the spontaneous polarization in the organic ferroelectric insulator. In addition, we have found that the drain current for the PEN-FET does not return to the initial drain current ofE _G =0 V/cm for more than one week, even if the gate electric field is changed to 0 V/cm from 500 V/cm(>E _c ). From these results, it is suggested that the PEN-FET becomes a memory device.     

Measurement of the differential and integral distribution of diffuse x-ray scattering intensity from defects in thin strained layers

Double-and triple-crystal diffractometry have been used to study structural perfection of a ∼1 μm-thick Ga_1−x In_xSb_1−y As_y epitaxial film (x=0.9, y=0.8) on GaSb. It is shown that scattering from samples of this system can be divided into coherent and diffuse. The arrangement of reciprocal-lattice points of the film and substrate in the two-dimensional intensity distribution for asymmetrical reflections argues for the absence of elastic-strain relaxation. No dislocation networks are formed, and the diffuse scattering is produced by Coulomb-type defects. Localization of diffuse scattering in reciprocal space suggests that these defects reside in the epitaxial film. The diffuse-scattering distribution in asymmetrical reflections is shown to be anomalous; namely, it extends in a direction parallel to the surface and is split into two maxima. Schemes have been proposed and realized for measuring integral distributions of diffracted intensity along the surface and perpendicular to it, and their potential for studying diffuse scattering from defects is explored. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 39, 1188–1193 (July 1997)