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Orientation anisotropy is a well-known essential character for polarization characteristics of ferroelectric materials, which has been widely investigated in conventional ferroelectric random access memories. In this work, we study the effects of orientation on the tunneling electroresistance (TER) of ferroelectric tunnel junctions (FTJs). Rhombohedral Pb(Zr0.7,Ti0.3)O3(PZT) that has the polar axis along the 〈111〉orientation is adopted as potential barriers and two kinds of FTJs that are composed of (001)- and (111)-oriented PZT barriers and Nb:SrTiO3(Nb:STO) electrodes, respectively, are fabricated. The (111)-oriented Pt/PZT/Nb:STO FTJ exhibits a giant ON/OFF ratio of ∼1.9×105, about 30 times that of the (001)-oriented device, due to the lowered PZT barrier in the ON state and the widen Schottky barrier in the OFF state based on current and capacitance analyses. In addition, compared to the (001)-oriented device, the (111)-oriented FTJ shows a sharper and faster switching between the ON and OFF states according to the nucleation-limited-switching dynamics model, giving rise to good linearity in memristive behaviors for synaptic plasticity and reliable retention and endurance properties for the resistance switching. The improved TER properties are ascribed to larger effective polarizations and 180∘switching in the (111)-oriented PZT barrier. These results facilitate the design and fabrication of high-performance FTJ devices with the optimization of crystallographic orientation and polarization switching characteristics.

Abstract:Mainland China and Hong Kong are two jurisdictions that, on the one hand, have sharply distinctive information ecosystems despite being one country and, on the other hand, are closely connected with each other in terms of the COVID-19 outbreak and related anti-pandemic measures. This note, through a comparative lens, outlines and compares how the information ecosystem of Mainland China and Hong Kong functioned during the early stage of the outbreak, that is, from 31 December 2019 to 29 February 2020. By tracing and examining the timeline of events and news articles published during the early stage of the outbreak through Wisers Information Database, it demonstrates and conceptualizes the information governance in Mainland China as “information authoritarianism” and that in Hong Kong as “information anarchy.” However, despite different patterns of information governance rooted in the different sociopolitical settings, both information ecosystems suffered from false pandemic information.

This article presents the first empirical evidence on the Chinese judicial assessment of pain and suffering damages for wrongful death. Drawing upon 1,225 Chinese judicial decisions of medical negligence resulting in a patient’s wrongful death, it investigates the empirical effects of various guiding factors that the Supreme People’s Court requires lower courts to consider when awarding the pain and suffering damages, and further tests the deep pockets theory and the anchoring effect theory in the real-life setting of Chinese wrongful death litigation. Based on regression analysis, this study finds that the awarded economic damages, the causal contribution of the defendant’s negligence, and the living standard of the court’s locality positively correlate with the amount of pain and suffering damages in wrongful death cases. It also finds empirical evidence supporting the deep pockets effect and the anchoring effect in Chinese courts’ awarding pain and suffering damages for wrongful death.