Reversible and nonvolatile tuning of photoluminescence response by electric field for reconfigurable luminescent memory devices

Luminescent materials with reversibly tunable ability under external stimuli, e.g., strain and electric field, are of great interest for developing advanced multifunctional optical devices. An important problem that has not been solved is the nonvolatility of field-driven switching for information storage applications. Here, we first propose a design principle that the electrically induced ferroelastic domain engineering in 0.7Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃-0.3PbTiO₃ substrates can be used to achieve robust nonvolatile tuning of photoluminescence performance in elastically-coupled Pr-doped Ba_0.85Ca_0.15Ti_0.9Zr_0.1O₃ thin films in a reversible way. Such a nonvolatile and reversible response is striking, which stems from the intermediate lateral-polarization-induced stable strain state in the substrate during domain switching. The quantitative determination of strain-mediated photoluminescence intensity is also addressed by virtue of the converse piezoelectric effect. This study points to an effective strategy for realizing piezo-luminescent effect in ferroelectric thin-film heterostructures and demonstrates great potentials in designing reconfigurable, low-power nonvolatile luminescent memory devices.