Ferroelectric Switching in x-cut MgO-doped Thin-Film Lithium Niobate: Implications for Periodic Poling and…

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±0.02)~C/m², 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.

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BibTeX RIS

BibTeX

@misc{staal2026ferroelectric,
  title = {{Ferroelectric Switching in x-cut MgO-doped Thin-Film Lithium Niobate: Implications for Periodic Poling and Domain-Wall Electronics}},
  author = {Niels Staal and Michael Rüsing and Tobias Babai-Hemati and Boris Koppitz and Nivedita Vishnukumar and Laura Bollmers and Noah Spiegelberg and Philipp Mues and Sebastian Lengeling and Tobias Schwabe and J. Christoph Scheytt and Christof Eigner and Lukas M. Eng and Laura Padberg and Christine Silberhorn},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2611.02233},
  eprint = {2611.02233},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.02233},
  note = {CC BY-NC-SA 4.0},
}

RIS

TY  - UNPB
TI  - Ferroelectric Switching in x-cut MgO-doped Thin-Film Lithium Niobate: Implications for Periodic Poling and Domain-Wall Electronics
AU  - Niels Staal
AU  - Michael Rüsing
AU  - Tobias Babai-Hemati
AU  - Boris Koppitz
AU  - Nivedita Vishnukumar
AU  - Laura Bollmers
AU  - Noah Spiegelberg
AU  - Philipp Mues
AU  - Sebastian Lengeling
AU  - Tobias Schwabe
AU  - J. Christoph Scheytt
AU  - Christof Eigner
AU  - Lukas M. Eng
AU  - Laura Padberg
AU  - Christine Silberhorn
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/11/01
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2611.02233
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.02233
AB  - 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±0.02)~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.
ER  -

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