Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Green Preparation and Application of Functional Materials, Hubei Provincial Key Laboratory of Polymers, Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Organic Chemical Materials Co-Constructed by the Province and Ministry, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hubei University, Wuhan 430062, China
Peng Zhou
Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Green Preparation and Application of Functional Materials, Hubei Provincial Key Laboratory of Polymers, Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Organic Chemical Materials Co-Constructed by the Province and Ministry, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hubei University, Wuhan 430062, China
Leonid Fetisov
Research-Education Center “Magnetoelectric Materials and Devices”, MIREA—Russian Technological University, Moscow 119454, Russia
Yuri Fetisov
Research-Education Center “Magnetoelectric Materials and Devices”, MIREA—Russian Technological University, Moscow 119454, Russia
Yajun Qi
Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Green Preparation and Application of Functional Materials, Hubei Provincial Key Laboratory of Polymers, Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Organic Chemical Materials Co-Constructed by the Province and Ministry, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hubei University, Wuhan 430062, China
Tianjin Zhang
Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Green Preparation and Application of Functional Materials, Hubei Provincial Key Laboratory of Polymers, Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Organic Chemical Materials Co-Constructed by the Province and Ministry, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hubei University, Wuhan 430062, China
In this work, the local conductance of the tetragonal-like (T-like) and rhombohedral-like (R-like) phases of epitaxial BiFeO3 film is systematically studied via conductive atomic force microscopy. At higher tip voltage, there is a mutual transition between the T-like and R-like phases, which could be attributed to the strain relaxation in the T-like phase induced by electric poling, as well as local polarization switching. The T-like phase exhibits a higher conductance, which is related to the lower interface potential barrier between the tip and film surface. Reversible low- and high-current states in the T-like phase can be tuned by polarization switching. These results will be helpful for designing novel nanoelectronic devices, such as voltage and strain sensors.