Reversible and nonvolatile ferroelectric control of two-dimensional electronic transport properties of ZrCuSiAs-type copper oxyselenide thin films with a layered structure

Abstract

Copper-based ZrCuSiAs-type compounds of LnCuChO ($\mathrm{Ln}=\mathrm{Bi}$ and lanthanides, $\mathrm{Ch}=\mathrm{S}$, Se, Te) with a layered crystal structure continuously attract worldwide attention in recent years. Although their high-temperature (T \ensuremath{\ge} 300 K) electrical properties have been intensively studied, their low-temperature electronic transport properties are little known. In this paper, we report the integration of ZrCuSiAs-type copper oxyselenide thin films of $\mathrm{B}{\mathrm{i}}_{0.94}\mathrm{P}{\mathrm{b}}_{0.06}\mathrm{CuSeO}$ (BPCSO) with perovskite-type ferroelectric $\mathrm{Pb}(\mathrm{M}{\mathrm{g}}_{1/3}\mathrm{N}{\mathrm{b}}_{2/3}){\mathrm{O}}_{3}\text{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{PbTi}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}$ (PMN-PT) single crystals in the form of ferroelectric field effect devices that allow us to control the electronic properties (e.g., carrier density, magnetoconductance, dephasing length, etc.) of BPCSO films in a reversible and nonvolatile manner by polarization switching at room temperature. Combining ferroelectric gating and magnetotransport measurements with the Hikami-Larkin-Nagaoka theory, we demonstrate two-dimensional (2D) electronic transport characteristics and weak antilocalization effect as well as strong carrier-density-mediated competition between weak antilocalization and weak localization in BPCSO films. Our results show that ferroelectric gating using PMN-PT provides an effective and convenient approach to probe the carrier-density-related 2D electronic transport properties of ZrCuSiAs-type copper oxyselenide thin films.