Surface Effect on Domain Wall Width in Ferroelectrics

Abstract

We study the effect of depolarization field related with inhomogeneous polarization distribution, strain and surface energy parameters on a domain wall profile near the surface of a ferroelectric film within the framework of Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire phenomenology. Both inhomogeneous elastic stress and positive surface energy lead to the wall broadening at electrically screened surface. For ferroelectrics with weak piezoelectric coupling, the extrapolation length that defines surface energy parameter, affects the wall broadening more strongly than inhomogeneous elastic stress. Unexpectedly, the domain wall profile follows a long-range power law when approaching the surface, while it saturates exponentially in the bulk. In materials with high piezoelectric coupling and negligibly small surface energy (i.e. high extrapolation length) inhomogeneous elastic stress effect dominates.

36 pages, 7 Figures, 1 Table, 3 Appendices, to be submitted to Phys. Rev. B

References in corpus (3)

• Abrupt appearance of the domain pattern and fatigue of thin ferroelectric films
• Universality of the Scaling Law for Ferroic Domains
• Depolarizing-Field Effect in Strained Nanoscale Ferroelectric Capacitors and Tunnel Junctions

Cited by in corpus (18)

• Conductivity of twin walls - surface junctions in ferroelastics: interplay of deformation potential, octahedral rotations, improper ferroelectricity and flexoelectric coupling
• Ferroionic states in ferroelectric thin films
• Defect driven flexo-chemical coupling in thin ferroelectric films
• Electrodynamics of ferroelectric films with negative capacitance
• Labyrinthine domains in ferroelectric nanoparticles: a manifestation of gradient-driven morphological transition
• Effect of surface ionic screening on polarization reversal scenario in ferroelectric thin films: crossover from ferroionic to antiferroionic states
• Stress-Induced Phase Transitions in Nanoscale CuInP${}_2$S${}_6$
• Phase Diagrams and Domain Splitting in Thin Ferroelectric Films with Incommensurate Phases
• Nanoscale periodic domain patterns in tetragonal ferroelectrics: A phase-field study
• Physics and modeling of multi-domain FeFET with domain wall induced Negative Capacitance
• Observability of negative capacitance of a ferroelectric film: Theoretical predictions
• Limits for the graphene on ferroelectric domain wall p-n-junction rectifier for different regimes of current
• Impact of the domain structure in ferroelectric substrate on graphene conductance (authors' review)
• Integer Quantum Hall Effect in Graphene Channel with p-n Junction at Domain Wall in Ferroelectric Substrate
• Melting of Spatially Modulated Phases in La-doped BiFeO3 at Surfaces and Surface-Domain Wall Junctions
• Towards the reproducible fabrication of conductive ferroelectric domain walls into lithium niobate bulk single crystals
• Phase transitions in ferroelectric domain walls
• Nontrivial magnetic field related phenomena in the single-layer graphene on ferroelectric substrate