Farming functionality: "Sowing two-dimensonal metals in ferroelectrics"

The project aims to show that oxygen vacancies act as seeds for the spontaneous formation of two- dimensional conductive pathways in ferroelectric oxides . This flips the 50-year-old paradigm that it is domain walls that drive vacancy distributions (i.e. not the other way around). The conjecture implies that the conductive channels self-organize in a fixed pattern defined by the vacancy distribution and has the far- reaching consequence that electric circuits can be designed at the atomic scale by “planting” oxygen vacancies in specific locations. The work will be carried out by performing first principles quantum mechanical computer simulations and investigate stabilizing effect of domain walls in the presence of impurities.