Combined Ferroelastic and Optical Control of Electronic Transport in Mott-Oxide–Ferroelectric Heterostructures

Abstract

Diverse external stimuli, such as light irradiation, an electric field, and a stress field, are employed to trigger the large modulation of electronic properties in Mott insulators. Here, we demonstrate that multiple nonvolatile and reversible resistivity evolution can be realized by adjusting the magnitude of ferroelastic strain in voltage-actuated ${\mathrm{LaVO}}_{3}/0.7\mathrm{Pb}({\mathrm{Mg}}_{1/3}{\mathrm{Nb}}_{2/3}){\mathrm{O}}_{3}\text{\ensuremath{-}}0.3{\mathrm{Pb}\mathrm{Ti}\mathrm{O}}_{3}$ heterostructures. The electrically driven ferroelastic strain tunability of resistivity, with a giant gauge factor of 494, can be effectively modified by light stimulus. Moreover, the visible-light-excited photoresistivity response can be ferroelastically enhanced by up to 65%. This discovery illustrates the strong interplay between the ferroelastic-strain-induced and light-induced effects, mediated by lattice-charge-orbital coupling. Our work implies the potential application of correlated oxide-ferroelectric systems for future low-power high-density versatile electronic storage devices with light-sensing capability.