Nanoscale control of polarization in ultrathin ferroelectric heterostructures
The success of oxide electronics depends on the ability to design functional properties such as ferroelectricity with atomic accuracy. Using laser optics, we enabled for the first time the access to the targeted properties during ultrathin oxide multilayer synthesis, in real time and with monolayer accuracy. Such a direct and in-situ probe of ferroelectric polarization during growth leads us to heterostructures with user-defined polarization sequences – key to a new class of functional ferroic materials.