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Charge transport across the interfaces in complex oxides attracts a lot ofattention because it allows creating novel functionalities useful for deviceapplications. In particular, it has been observed that movable domain walls inepitaxial BiFeO3 films possess enhanced conductivity that can be used for readout in ferroelectric-based memories. In this work, the relation between thepolarization and conductivity in sol-gel BiFeO3 films with special emphasis ongrain boundaries as natural interfaces in polycrystalline ferroelectrics isinvestigated. The grains exhibit self-organized domain structure in thesefilms, so that the "domain clusters" consisting of several grains with alignedpolarization directions are formed. Surprisingly, grain boundaries betweenthese clusters (with antiparallel polarization direction) have significantlyhigher electrical conductivity in comparison to "inter-cluster" grainboundaries, in which the conductivity was even smaller than in the bulk. Assuch, polarization-dependent conductivity of the grain boundaries was observedfor the first time in ferroelectric thin films. The results are rationalized bythermodynamic modelling combined with finite element simulations of the chargeand stress accumulation at the grain boundaries giving major contribution toconductivity. The observed polarization-dependent conductivity of grainboundaries in ferroelectrics opens up a new avenue for exploiting thesematerials in electronic devices.

Polarization-dependent conductivity of grain boundaries in BiFeO3 thin films