Tunnel electroresistance in ferroelectric tunnel junctions

In tunnel junctions with a ferroelectric barrier, large resistance changes can arise upon switching the ferroelectric polarization direction. This tunnel electroresistance (TER) effect has recently been observed by scanning probe techniques on electrode/barrier bilayers (e.g. LSMO/BaTiO$_{3}$), yielding giant TER values in the 50000\% range at room temperature. Beside their fundamental interest to elucidate the interplay between electrostatic effects, changes in the interfacial density of states, piezoelectricity and quantum-mechanical tunneling, ferroelectric tunnel junctions undoubtedly present a great potential for application as memory devices with simple, non-destructive readout and low-power write operations. We will present our progress towards the realization of solid-state ferroelectric tunnel junctions and discuss their potential as next-generation non-volatile memories.