Proximity Ferroelectricity in Compositionally Graded Structures

ABSTRACT Proximity ferroelectricity is a novel paradigm for inducing ferroelectricity in a non‐ferroelectric polar material, such as AlN or ZnO that are typically unswitchable with an external field below their dielectric breakdown field. When placed in direct contact with a thin switchable ferroelectric layer (such as Al 1‐x Sc x N or Zn 1‐x Mg x O), they become a practically switchable ferroelectric. Using the thermodynamic Landau‐Ginzburg‐Devonshire theory, in this work, we perform the finite element modeling of the polarization switching in the compositionally graded AlN‐Al 1‐x Sc x N, ZnO‐Zn 1‐x Mg x O, and MgO‐Zn 1‐x Mg x O structures sandwiched in both a parallel‐plate capacitor geometry as well as in a sharp probe‐planar electrode geometry. We reveal that the compositionally graded structure allows the simultaneous switching of spontaneous polarization in the whole system by a coercive field significantly lower than the electric breakdown field of unswitchable polar materials. The physical mechanism is the depolarization electric field determined by the gradient of chemical composition “x”. The field lowers the steepness of the switching barrier in the otherwise unswitchable parts of the compositionally graded AlN‐Al 1‐x Sc x N and ZnO‐Zn 1‐x Mg x O structures. In the MgO‐like regions of the compositionally graded MgO‐Zn 1‐x Mg x O structure, a shallow double‐well free energy potential emerges. Proximity ferroelectric switching of the compositionally graded structures placed in the probe‐electrode geometry occurs due to nanodomain formation under the tip. We predict that a gradient of chemical composition “x” significantly lowers effective coercive fields of the compositionally graded AlN‐Al 1‐x Sc x N and ZnO‐Zn 1‐x Mg x O structures compared to the coercive fields of the corresponding multilayers with a uniform chemical composition in each layer. A tip‐induced switching further lowers the coercive field, enabling control of ferroelectric domains in otherwise unswitchable compositionally graded structures, which can provide nanoscale domain control for memory, actuation, sensing, and optical applications.