{
  "abstract": "Thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) revives a mature ferroelectric as a wafer-scale platform for integrated photonics and, increasingly, for domain-wall electronics such as nonvolatile memories and memristors. Both applications rely on controlled ferroelectric switching, which is poorly understood in TFLN: periodic poling consistently requires electric fields above 30~kV/mm, far above the coercive fields of about 21~kV/mm and 4.5~kV/mm of bulk congruent and 5~mol\\% MgO-doped lithium niobate, respectively. Here, we present systematic ferroelectric hysteresis measurements on x-cut, 5~mol\\% MgO-doped TFLN with coplanar electrodes as used for periodic poling, combining the positive-up-negative-down (PUND) method with second-harmonic microscopy (SHM). We obtain a spontaneous polarization of $(0.72\\pm0.02)$~C/m$^2$, consistent with bulk values, while the coercive field varies between 24 and 40~kV/mm with the voltage ramp rate and depends on the electrode geometry. We identify three contributions to the high coercive fields: (i) fast voltage ramps, (ii) finger electrodes, and (iii) the coplanar surface-electrode geometry. Together with bulk data, the coercive field follows a single power law of the ramp rate over five orders of magnitude, showing that the high fields are dominated by switching dynamics rather than by intrinsic thin-film properties. Moreover, the apparent internal field depends on the electrode geometry, and reverse switching leaves buried, electrically isolated domains. These results provide guidelines for scalable, fab-compatible periodic poling---one of the principal bottlenecks of TFLN device integration---and for the write and erase operation of TFLN domain-wall devices.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2611.02233",
  "author_total": 15,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Niels Staal"
    },
    {
      "name": "Michael Rüsing"
    },
    {
      "name": "Tobias Babai-Hemati"
    },
    {
      "name": "Boris Koppitz"
    },
    {
      "name": "Nivedita Vishnukumar"
    },
    {
      "name": "Laura Bollmers"
    },
    {
      "name": "Noah Spiegelberg"
    },
    {
      "name": "Philipp Mues"
    },
    {
      "name": "Sebastian Lengeling"
    },
    {
      "name": "Tobias Schwabe"
    },
    {
      "name": "J. Christoph Scheytt"
    },
    {
      "name": "Christof Eigner"
    },
    {
      "name": "Lukas M. Eng"
    },
    {
      "name": "Laura Padberg"
    },
    {
      "name": "Christine Silberhorn"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/98ctm5hvkpmcc.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2611.02233",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "98ctm5hvkpmcc",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.02233",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC-SA 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "cond-mat.mtrl-sci"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2611.02233",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-11-01",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/98ctm5hvkpmcc.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-03T12:20:59Z",
      "native_id": "2611.02233",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.02233"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:cond-mat.mtrl-sci",
      "subfield": "condensed-matter"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Ferroelectric Switching in x-cut MgO-doped Thin-Film Lithium Niobate: Implications for Periodic Poling and Domain-Wall Electronics",
  "title_text": "Ferroelectric Switching in x-cut MgO-doped Thin-Film Lithium Niobate: Implications for Periodic Poling and Domain-Wall Electronics",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-05T15:20:18Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/98ctm5hvkpmcc",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}