High-Density Ferroelectric Recording Using Diamond Probe by Scanning Nonlinear Dielectric Microscopy

Abstract

In this paper, we report the development of a diamond multiprobe for ultrahigh-density ferroelectric data storage based on scanning nonlinear dielectric microscopy (SNDM), which is a technique for determining polarized directions in ferroelectric domains by measuring a nonlinear dielectric constant with an electrical inductance–capacitance (LC) resonator. SNDM has the capability of both reading and writing nanosized polarized ferroelectric domain information at a high speed, since the SNDM technique is a purely electrical method. Boron-doped diamond synthesized by hot-filament chemical vapor deposition is chosen as a conductive and robust probe material. The diamond probes are fabricated using a combination of the silicon lost-mold technique and selective growth. We present the fabrication of the diamond multiprobe and data storage experiments using a ferroelectric LiTaO3 thin film. It is demonstrated that the boron-doped diamond probe can be used for data storage based on SNDM.