Tailoring nanoscale polarization patterns and transport properties in ferroelectric tunnel junctions by octahedral tilts in electrodes

Oxygen octahedral tilts are known for the ability to tailor polarization patterns in perovskites. We propose a way to manipulate nanoscale polarization patterns in ferroelectric tunnel junctions (FTJs) by oxygen octahedral tilts in electrodes combined with interface engineering. Here the electrode is epitaxial SrRuO(3) on SrTiO(3), and the ferroelectric barrier is a BaTiO(3)/CaTiO(3) superlattice. The octahedral tilt mismatch between electrodes and the barrier is found to be eliminated at one of the two most stable interfaces by the imprinting of in-phase oxygen octahedral tilt from electrodes into the barrier, which further results in anti-polar order in the barrier, while uniform polar order is retained for another stable interface. Further analysis of electronic transport properties shows an increased transmission in FTJ with anti-polar order, which is mainly caused by octahedral tilt induced out-of-plane ferroelectric domain walls. Our results indicate that the oxygen octahedral tilts in electrodes can be used to manipulate polarization patterns and create charged domain walls in FTJs, which further expand the application prospects of FTJ-based devices.