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Electrically driven phase transition in magnetite nanostructures

Nature Materials volume 7, pages 130–133 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Magnetite (Fe3O4), an archetypal transition-metal oxide, has been used for thousands of years, from lodestones in primitive compasses1 to a candidate material for magnetoelectronic devices2. In 1939, Verwey3 found that bulk magnetite undergoes a transition at TV≈120 K from a high-temperature ‘bad metal’ conducting phase to a low-temperature insulating phase. He suggested4 that high-temperature conduction is through the fluctuating and correlated valences of the octahedral iron atoms, and that the transition is the onset of charge ordering on cooling. The Verwey transition mechanism and the question of charge ordering remain highly controversial5,6,7,8,9,10,11. Here, we show that magnetite nanocrystals and single-crystal thin films exhibit an electrically driven phase transition below the Verwey temperature. The signature of this transition is the onset of sharp conductance switching in high electric fields, hysteretic in voltage. We demonstrate that this transition is not due to local heating, but instead is due to the breakdown of the correlated insulating state when driven out of equilibrium by electrical bias. We anticipate that further studies of this newly observed transition and its low-temperature conducting phase will shed light on how charge ordering and vibrational degrees of freedom determine the ground state of this important compound.

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Figure 1: Hysteretic conductance switching below TV.
Figure 2: Differential conductance plots of the switching.
Figure 3: Power required to switch from the insulating into the more conducting state as a function of temperature, for a device based on ∼20 nm diameter nanocrystals.
Figure 4: Switching voltages in a series of film devices as a function of channel length at several temperatures.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the US Department of Energy grant DE-FG02-06ER46337. D.N. also acknowledges the David and Lucille Packard Foundation and the Research Corporation. V.L.C. acknowledges the NSF Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology (EEC-0647452), Office of Naval Research (N00014-04-1-0003) and the US Environmental Protection Agency Star Program (RD-83253601-0). C.T.Y. acknowledges a Robert A. Welch Foundation (C-1349) graduate fellowship. R.G.S.S. and I.V.S. acknowledge the Science Foundation Ireland grant 06/IN.1/I91.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, 6100 Main St., Houston, Texas 77005, USA

    Sungbae Lee & Douglas Natelson

  2. Department of Chemistry, Rice University, 6100 Main St., Houston, Texas 77005, USA

    Alexandra Fursina, John T. Mayo, Cafer T. Yavuz & Vicki L. Colvin

  3. CRANN, School of Physics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

    R. G. Sumesh Sofin & Igor V. Shvets

  4. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rice University, 6100 Main St., Houston, Texas 77005, USA

    Douglas Natelson

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  1. Sungbae Lee
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Contributions

S.L. fabricated and measured the devices in this work and analysed the data. A.F. fabricated devices and carried out X-ray diffraction characterization of the nanocrystal materials. D.N. and S.L. wrote the paper. J.T.M. and C.Y.Z. made the nanocrystals in V.L.C.’s laboratory and V.L.C. contributed expertise in nanomaterials chemistry and characterization. R.G.S.S. and I.V.S. grew the magnetite films and I.V.S. contributed expertise on magnetite physical properties. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Douglas Natelson.

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Supplementary information, figures S1-S6 and supplementary references/notes (PDF 465 kb)

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Lee, S., Fursina, A., Mayo, J. et al. Electrically driven phase transition in magnetite nanostructures. Nature Mater 7, 130–133 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2084

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