A Room-Temperature Ferroelectric Resonant Tunneling Diode

Authors

• Zhijun Ma,, Hubei University, University of New South Wales
• Qi Zhang, University of New South Wales
• Lingling Tao, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Yihao Wang, Hubei University
• Daniel Sando, University of New South Wales
• Jinling Zhou, University of New South Wales
• Yizhong Guo, University of New South Wales
• Michael Lord, University of New South Wales
• Peng Zhou, Hubei University
• Yongqi Ruan, Hubei University
• Zhiwei Wang, Hubei University
• Alex Hamilton, University of New South Wales
• Alexei Gruverman, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
• Evgeny Y. Tsymbal, University of Nebraska at LincolnFollow
• Tianjin Zhang, Hubei University
• Nagarajan Valanoor, University of New South Wales

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

6-14-2022

Citation

Adv. Mater. 2022, 2205359. DOI: 10.1002/adma.202205359

Comments

Used by Permission.

Abstract

Resonant tunneling is a quantum-mechanical effect in which electron transport is controlled by the discrete energy levels within a quantum-well (QW) structure. A ferroelectric resonant tunneling diode (RTD) exploits the switchable electric polarization state of the QW barrier to tune the device resistance. Here, the discovery of robust room-temperature ferroelectric-modulated resonant tunneling and negative differential resistance (NDR) behaviors in all-perovskite-oxide BaTiO₃/SrRuO₃/BaTiO₃ QW structures is reported. The resonant current amplitude and voltage are tunable by the switchable polarization of the BaTiO₃ ferroelectric with the NDR ratio modulated by ≈3 orders of magnitude and an OFF/ON resistance ratio exceeding a factor of 2 × 10⁴. The observed NDR effect is explained an energy bandgap between Ru-t_2g and Ru-eg orbitals driven by electron–electron correlations, as follows from density functional theory calculations. This study paves the way for ferroelectric-based quantum-tunneling devices in future oxide electronics.