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Title: Highly mobile ferroelastic domain walls in compositionally graded ferroelectric thin films

Journal Article · · Nature Materials
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4567· OSTI ID:1261365
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [4];  [3]
  1. Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)
  2. Univ. of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW (Australia)
  3. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  4. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  5. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
  6. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Domains and domain walls are critical in determining the response of ferroelectrics, and the ability to controllably create, annihilate, or move domains is essential to enable a range of next-generation devices. Whereas electric-field control has been demonstrated for ferroelectric 180° domain walls, similar control of ferroelastic domains has not been achieved. Here, using controlled composition and strain gradients, we demonstrate deterministic control of ferroelastic domains that are rendered highly mobile in a controlled and reversible manner. Through a combination of thin-film growth, transmission-electron-microscopy-based nanobeam diffraction and nanoscale band-excitation switching spectroscopy, we show that strain gradients in compositionally graded PbZr 1-x Ti x O 3 heterostructures stabilize needle-like ferroelastic domains that terminate inside the film. These needle-like domains are highly labile in the out-of-plane direction under applied electric fields, producing a locally enhanced piezoresponse. This work demonstrates the efficacy of novel modes of epitaxy in providing new modalities of domain engineering and potential for as-yet-unrealized nanoscale functional devices.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725; AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1261365
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1439993
Journal Information:
Nature Materials, Vol. 15, Issue 5; ISSN 1476-1122
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 90 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (23)

Machine Detection of Enhanced Electromechanical Energy Conversion in PbZr 0.2 Ti 0.8 O 3 Thin Films journal May 2018
Understanding the Role of Ferroelastic Domains on the Pyroelectric and Electrocaloric Effects in Ferroelectric Thin Films journal December 2018
Functional Materials Under Stress: In Situ TEM Observations of Structural Evolution journal November 2019
Giant Enhancement of Polarization and Strong Improvement of Retention in Epitaxial Ba 0.6 Sr 0.4 TiO 3 -Based Nanocomposites journal May 2017
Large Polarization and Susceptibilities in Artificial Morphotropic Phase Boundary PbZr 1− x Ti x O 3 Superlattices journal January 2020
An optical method for characterizing domain wall motions and ferroelectric hysteresis in tetragonal Mn:Fe:KTN co-doped crystals journal January 2018
Thin-film ferroelectric materials and their applications journal November 2016
Revealing ferroelectric switching character using deep recurrent neural networks journal October 2019
Modeling solvent evaporation during thin film formation in phase separating polymer mixtures journal January 2018
Structural and electrical properties of lanthanum copper oxide epitaxial thin films with different domain morphologies journal January 2018
Formation of polarization needle-like domain and its unusual switching in compositionally graded ferroelectric thin films: an improved phase field model journal January 2019
Domain switching in single-phase multiferroics journal June 2018
The enhanced piezoelectricity in compositionally graded ferroelectric thin films under electric field: A role of flexoelectric effect journal February 2018
Pulsed laser deposition with rapid beam deflection by a galvanometer mirror scanner journal September 2019
Temperature-independent giant dielectric response in transitional BaTiO 3 thin films journal March 2020
Local deformation gradients in epitaxial Pb(Zr 0.2 Ti 0.8 )O 3 layers investigated by transmission electron microscopy journal April 2018
Facilitation of Ferroelectric Switching via Mechanical Manipulation of Hierarchical Nanoscale Domain Structures journal January 2017
Scaling Effects in Perovskite Ferroelectrics: Fundamental Limits and Process-Structure-Property Relations journal July 2016
Frontiers in strain-engineered multifunctional ferroic materials journal August 2016
Periodicity-Doubling Cascades: Direct Observation in Ferroelastic Materials. text January 2019
Electrically driven ferroelastic domain walls, domain wall interactions, and moving needle domains text January 2019
Large polarization gradients and temperature-stable responses in compositionally-graded ferroelectrics journal May 2017
Ultra-large electric field–induced strain in potassium sodium niobate crystals journal March 2020

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