Observation of Antiferroelectric Domain Walls in a Uniaxial Hyperferroelectric

Journal Article · 08 August 2024 · Advanced Materials

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202405150 · OSTI ID:2429081

Conroy, Michele ^[1]; Småbråten, Didrik René ^[2]; Ophus, Colin ^[3]; Shapovalov, Konstantin ^[4]; Ramasse, Quentin M. ^[5]; Hunnestad, Kasper Aas ^[6]; Selbach, Sverre M. ^[6]; Aschauer, Ulrich ^[7]; Moore, Kalani ^[8]; Gregg, J. Marty ^[9]; Bangert, Ursel ^[10]; Stengel, Massimiliano ^[11]; Gruverman, Alexei ^[12]; Meier, Dennis  ^[6]

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1. Department of Materials London Centre of Nanotechnology Imperial Henry Royce Institute Imperial College London London SW7 2AZ UK
2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology Trondheim 7491 Norway, Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences University of Bern Bern CH‐3012 Bern Switzerland
3. National Center for Electron Microscopy Molecular Foundry Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Berkeley CA 94720 USA
4. Institut de Ciencia de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB‐CSIC) Campus UAB Bellaterra 08193 Spain, Theoretical Materials Physics, Q‐MAT University of Liège B‐4000 Sart‐Tilman Liège Belgium
5. School of Physics and Astronomy School of Chemical and Process Engineering University of Leeds Leeds LS2 9JT UK, SuperSTEM SciTech Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus Daresbury WA4 4AD UK
6. Department of Materials Science and Engineering NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology Trondheim 7491 Norway
7. Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences University of Bern Bern CH‐3012 Bern Switzerland, Department of Chemistry and Physics of Materials University of Salzburg Salzburg 5020 Austria
8. Direct Electron LP San Diego CA 92128 USA
9. Centre for Quantum Materials and Technologies School of Mathematics and Physics Queen's University Belfast Belfast BT7 1NN UK
10. Department of Physics Bernal Institute University of Limerick Limerick V94 T9PX Ireland
11. Institut de Ciencia de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB‐CSIC) Campus UAB Bellaterra 08193 Spain, Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA) Pg. Lluís Companys Barcelona 08010 Spain
12. Department of Physics and Astronomy Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience University of Nebraska Lincoln NE NE 68588 USA

Abstract Ferroelectric domain walls are a rich source of emergent electronic properties and unusual polar order. Recent studies show that the configuration of ferroelectric walls can go well beyond the conventional Ising‐type structure. Néel‐, Bloch‐, and vortex‐like polar patterns have been observed, displaying strong similarities with the spin textures at magnetic domain walls. Here, the discovery of antiferroelectric domain walls in the uniaxial ferroelectric Pb ₅ Ge ₃ O ₁₁ is reported. Highly mobile domain walls with an alternating displacement of Pb atoms are resolved, resulting in a cyclic 180° flip of dipole direction within the wall. Density functional theory calculations show that Pb ₅ Ge ₃ O ₁₁ is hyperferroelectric, allowing the system to overcome the depolarization fields that usually suppress the antiparallel ordering of dipoles along the longitudinal direction. Interestingly, the antiferroelectric walls observed under the electron beam are energetically more costly than basic head‐to‐head or tail‐to‐tail walls. The results suggest a new type of excited domain‐wall state, expanding previous studies on ferroelectric domain walls into the realm of antiferroic phenomena.

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 2429081
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 2429085; OSTI ID: 2440385
• Journal Information: Advanced Materials, Journal Name: Advanced Materials; ISSN 0935-9648
• Publisher: Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)Copyright Statement
• Country of Publication: Germany
• Language: English