Giant conductivity of mobile non-oxide domain walls

Abstract

Atomically sharp domain walls in ferroelectrics are considered as an ideal platform to realize easy-to-reconfigure nanoelectronic building blocks, created, manipulated and erased by external fields. However, conductive domain walls have been exclusively observed in oxides, where domain wall mobility and conductivity is largely influenced by stoichiometry and defects. Here, we report on giant conductivity of domain walls in the non-oxide ferroelectric GaV4S8. We observe conductive domain walls forming in zig-zagging structures, that are composed of head-to-head and tail-to-tail domain wall segments alternating on the nanoscale. Remarkably, both types of segments possess high conductivity, unimaginable in oxide ferroelectrics. These effectively 2D domain walls, dominating the 3D conductance, can be mobilized by magnetic fields, triggering abrupt conductance changes as large as eight orders of magnitude. These unique properties demonstrate that non-oxide ferroelectrics can be the source of novel phenomena beyond the realm of oxide electronics.