Nonvolatile regulation of room-temperature electronic properties of Cr:In2O3 thin films by ferroelectric polarization charge and light illumination

Reversible and nonvolatile manipulation of physical properties has attained significant attention due to its potential applications in the memory industry, leveraging intrinsic physical phenomena. Here, we report the growth of Cr-doped In2O3 (Cr:In2O3) thin films on the 0.71Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–0.29PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) ferroelectric substrates in the form of ferroelectric field-effect devices. The application of bipolar electric fields to the PMN-PT substrates enables nonvolatile tuning of both carrier density and resistance in the Cr:In2O3 films. The effects of the PMN-PT substrate's out-of-plane orientation and the Cr doping level in Cr:In2O3 films on the performance of the Cr:In2O3/PMN-PT heterostructures have been investigated systematically. Notably, a remarkable relative resistance change of 4.37 × 104% is achieved at room temperature for the In1.88Cr0.12O3/PMN-PT(111) structure. Additionally, by combining ferroelectric gating with light illumination, multilevel resistance states in Cr:In2O3 films were realized. This approach offers an energy-efficient method for constructing multistate resistive memories and advanced optoelectronic devices.