Resonant domain-wall-enhanced tunable microwave ferroelectrics

Zongquan Gu, Shishir Pandya, Atanu Samanta, Shi Liu, Geoffrey Xiao, Cedric J. G. Meyers, Anoop R. Damodaran, Haim Barak, Arvind Dasgupta, Sahar Saremi, Alessia Polemi, Liyan Wu, Adrian A. Podpirka, Alexandria Will-Cole, Christopher J. Hawley, Peter K. Davies, Robert A. York, Ilya Grinberg, Lane W. Martin and Jonathan E. Spanier ()
Additional contact information
Zongquan Gu: Drexel University
Shishir Pandya: University of California at Berkeley
Atanu Samanta: Bar-Ilan University
Shi Liu: Carnegie Institution for Science
Geoffrey Xiao: Drexel University
Cedric J. G. Meyers: University of California at Santa Barbara
Anoop R. Damodaran: University of California at Berkeley
Haim Barak: Bar-Ilan University
Arvind Dasgupta: University of California at Berkeley
Sahar Saremi: University of California at Berkeley
Alessia Polemi: Drexel University
Liyan Wu: University of Pennsylvania
Adrian A. Podpirka: Drexel University
Alexandria Will-Cole: Drexel University
Christopher J. Hawley: Drexel University
Peter K. Davies: University of Pennsylvania
Robert A. York: University of California at Santa Barbara
Ilya Grinberg: Bar-Ilan University
Lane W. Martin: University of California at Berkeley
Jonathan E. Spanier: Drexel University

Nature, 2018, vol. 560, issue 7720, 622-627

Abstract: Abstract Ordering of ferroelectric polarization1 and its trajectory in response to an electric field2 are essential for the operation of non-volatile memories3, transducers4 and electro-optic devices5. However, for voltage control of capacitance and frequency agility in telecommunication devices, domain walls have long been thought to be a hindrance because they lead to high dielectric loss and hysteresis in the device response to an applied electric field6. To avoid these effects, tunable dielectrics are often operated under piezoelectric resonance conditions, relying on operation well above the ferroelectric Curie temperature7, where tunability is compromised. Therefore, there is an unavoidable trade-off between the requirements of high tunability and low loss in tunable dielectric devices, which leads to severe limitations on their figure of merit. Here we show that domain structure can in fact be exploited to obtain ultralow loss and exceptional frequency selectivity without piezoelectric resonance. We use intrinsically tunable materials with properties that are defined not only by their chemical composition, but also by the proximity and accessibility of thermodynamically predicted strain-induced, ferroelectric domain-wall variants8. The resulting gigahertz microwave tunability and dielectric loss are better than those of the best film devices by one to two orders of magnitude and comparable to those of bulk single crystals. The measured quality factors exceed the theoretically predicted zero-field intrinsic limit owing to domain-wall fluctuations, rather than field-induced piezoelectric oscillations, which are usually associated with resonance. Resonant frequency tuning across the entire L, S and C microwave bands (1–8 gigahertz) is achieved in an individual device—a range about 100 times larger than that of the best intrinsically tunable material. These results point to a rich phase space of possible nanometre-scale domain structures that can be used to surmount current limitations, and demonstrate a promising strategy for obtaining ultrahigh frequency agility and low-loss microwave devices.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0434-2

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