Electrically reversible cracks in an intermetallic film controlled by an electric field

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Z.Q. Liu
  • J.H. Liu
  • M.D. Biegalski
  • J.-M. Hu
  • S.L. Shang
  • Y. Ji
  • J.M. Wang
  • S.L. Hsu
  • A.T. Wong
  • B. Gludovatz
  • C. Marker
  • H. Yan
  • Z.X. Feng
  • L. You
  • M.W. Lin
  • T.Z. Ward
  • Z.K. Liu
  • C.B. Jiang
  • L.Q. Chen
  • R.O. Ritchie
  • H.M. Christen
  • R. Ramesh

Organisational units

External Organisational units

  • School of Metallurgical and Ecological Engineering, Univ. Sci. Techn.
  • Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
  • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University
  • Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California Berkeley
  • Erich Schmid Institute of Materials Science
  • UNSW
  • Faculty of Materials Science and Technology, Huazhong Univ. of Science and Technology

Abstract

Cracks in solid-state materials are typically irreversible. Here we report electrically reversible opening and closing of nanoscale cracks in an intermetallic thin film grown on a ferroelectric substrate driven by a small electric field (~0.83 kV/cm). Accordingly, a nonvolatile colossal electroresistance on–off ratio of more than 108 is measured across the cracks in the intermetallic film at room temperature. Cracks are easily formed with low-frequency voltage cycling and remain stable when the device is operated at high frequency, which offers intriguing potential for next-generation high-frequency memory applications. Moreover, endurance testing demonstrates that the opening and closing of such cracks can reach over 107 cycles under 10-μs pulses, without catastrophic failure of the film.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number9
Number of pages7
JournalNature Communications
Volume41.2018
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 3 Jan 2018