Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Exploring physics of ferroelectric domain walls via Bayesian analysis of atomically resolved STEM data

Journal Article · · Nature Communications

The physics of ferroelectric domain walls is explored using the Bayesian inference analysis of atomically resolved STEM data. We demonstrate that domain wall profile shapes are ultimately sensitive to the nature of the order parameter in the material, including the functional form of Ginzburg-Landau-Devonshire expansion, and numerical value of the corresponding parameters. The preexisting materials knowledge naturally folds in the Bayesian framework in the form of prior distributions, with the different order parameters forming competing (or hierarchical) models. Here, we explore the physics of the ferroelectric domain walls in BiFeO3 using this method, and derive the posterior estimates of relevant parameters. More generally, this inference approach both allows learning materials physics from experimental data with associated uncertainty quantification, and establishing guidelines for instrumental development answering questions on what resolution and information limits are necessary for reliable observation of specific physical mechanisms of interest.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Science (CNMS)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division; National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST); National Science Foundation (NSF); European Union (EU)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1787254
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1870263
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 11; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (59)

Conduction at Domain Walls in Insulating Pb(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3 Thin Films journal September 2011
Interplay of Octahedral Tilts and Polar Order in BiFeO 3 Films journal March 2013
Enhancement of Dielectric Properties in Epitaxial Bismuth Ferrite-Bismuth Samarium Ferrite Superlattices journal July 2016
Domains in Ferroic Crystals and Thin Films book January 2010
Jags book November 2014
Local crystal structure analysis with several picometer precision using scanning transmission electron microscopy journal June 2010
Correcting nonlinear drift distortion of scanning probe and scanning transmission electron microscopies from image pairs with orthogonal scan directions journal March 2016
The maximum a posteriori probability rule for atom column detection from HAADF STEM images journal June 2019
Identifying and Correcting Scan Noise and Drift in the Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope journal May 2013
Spontaneous Vortex Nanodomain Arrays at Ferroelectric Heterointerfaces journal February 2011
Tunable Metallic Conductance in Ferroelectric Nanodomains journal December 2011
Observation of polar vortices in oxide superlattices journal January 2016
Atomically engineered ferroic layers yield a room-temperature magnetoelectric multiferroic journal September 2016
Atomic-scale evolution of modulated phases at the ferroelectric–antiferroelectric morphotropic phase boundary controlled by flexoelectric interaction journal January 2012
Free-electron gas at charged domain walls in insulating BaTiO3 journal May 2013
Unit-cell scale mapping of ferroelectricity and tetragonality in epitaxial ultrathin ferroelectric films journal December 2006
Conduction at domain walls in oxide multiferroics journal January 2009
Anisotropic conductance at improper ferroelectric domain walls journal February 2012
Domain-wall conduction in ferroelectric BiFeO3 controlled by accumulation of charged defects journal November 2016
Functional electronic inversion layers at ferroelectric domain walls journal March 2017
Above-bandgap voltages from ferroelectric photovoltaic devices journal January 2010
Quantification of flexoelectricity in PbTiO3/SrTiO3 superlattice polar vortices using machine learning and phase-field modeling journal November 2017
Polar meron lattice in strained oxide ferroelectrics journal June 2020
Observation of room-temperature polar skyrmions journal April 2019
Domain-wall structure and domain-wall strain journal June 2003
Ferroelectric thin films: Review of materials, properties, and applications journal September 2006
The intrinsic elasticity of twin walls: Ferrielectric twin walls in ferroelastic CaTiO3 journal February 2009
Physics of the ferroelectric nonvolatile memory field effect transistor journal December 1992
Stress and frequency dependence of the direct piezoelectric effect in ferroelectric ceramics journal August 1997
Origin of the Bloch-type polarization components at the 180° domain walls in ferroelectric PbTiO 3 journal December 2014
Thermodynamic theory of the lead zirconate-titanate solid solution system, part I: Phenomenology journal November 1989
Ferroelectric, dielectric and piezoelectric properties of ferroelectric thin films and ceramics journal September 1998
Theory of Antiferroelectric Crystals journal June 1951
Landau-Ginzburg model of interphase boundaries in improper ferroelastic Perovskites of D 4 h 18 symmetry journal March 1990
Polarization response of crystals with structural and ferroelectric instabilities journal October 1993
Betaine arsenate as a system with two instabilities journal April 1995
First-principles study of ferroelectric domain walls in multiferroic bismuth ferrite journal September 2009
Landau theory of domain wall magnetoelectricity journal June 2010
First-principles predictions of low-energy phases of multiferroic BiFeO 3 journal March 2011
Head-to-head and tail-to-tail 180 ° domain walls in an isolated ferroelectric journal May 2011
Domain wall conduction in multiaxial ferroelectrics journal January 2012
Anisotropic conductivity of uncharged domain walls in BiFeO 3 journal August 2012
Conductivity of twin-domain-wall/surface junctions in ferroelastics: Interplay of deformation potential, octahedral rotations, improper ferroelectricity, and flexoelectric coupling journal August 2012
Interface dipole between two metallic oxides caused by localized oxygen vacancies journal October 2012
Universal emergence of spatially modulated structures induced by flexoantiferrodistortive coupling in multiferroics journal December 2013
Interface control of a morphotropic phase boundary in epitaxial samarium modified bismuth ferrite superlattices journal December 2014
Suppression of Octahedral Tilts and Associated Changes in Electronic Properties at Epitaxial Oxide Heterostructure Interfaces journal August 2010
Atomic-Scale Compensation Phenomena at Polar Interfaces journal November 2010
Conduction through 71° Domain Walls in BiFeO 3 Thin Films journal September 2011
Exploring Mesoscopic Physics of Vacancy-Ordered Systems through Atomic Scale Observations of Topological Defects journal August 2012
BiFeO 3 Domain Wall Energies and Structures: A Combined Experimental and Density Functional Theory + U Study journal June 2013
Phase Transitions, Magnetic and Piezoelectric Properties of Rare-Earth-Substituted BiFeO3 Ceramics journal August 2011
A Strain-Driven Morphotropic Phase Boundary in BiFeO3 journal November 2009
Direct Observation of Continuous Electric Dipole Rotation in Flux-Closure Domains in Ferroelectric Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 journal March 2011
Observation of a periodic array of flux-closure quadrants in strained ferroelectric PbTiO3 films journal April 2015
Bayesian Data Analysis book November 2013
Using Stacking to Average Bayesian Predictive Distributions (with Discussion) journal September 2018
An effect of crystal tilt on the determination of ions displacements in perovskite oxides under BF/HAADF-STEM imaging mode journal October 2016
Experimental dataset in support of publication dataset January 2020