Identification and mechanical control of ferroelastic domain structure in rhombohedral CaMn${}_7$O${}_{12}$

Abstract

We report on observation of ferroelastic domain structure in single crystals of multiferroic CaMn${}_7$O${}_{12}$ at room temperature. Two types of ferroelastic domain wall are found, consistent with the material's rhombohedral symmetry that is reduced from cubic symmetry at higher temperatures. Using Raman spectroscopy along with other measurements, we develop a systematic method to determine the microscopic domain orientation. Moreover, we find a switching behavior of the domains, which allows us to detwin the crystals conveniently at room temperature using a moderate uniaxial compression. Our result paves the way for further spectroscopic study and domain engineering in CaMn${}_7$O${}_{12}$.

7 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Giant Ferroelectric Polarization of CaMn7O12 Induced by a Combined Effect of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction and Exchange Striction
• Soft vibrational mode associated with incommensurate orbital order in multiferroic CaMn${}_7$O${}_{12}$

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Soft phonon driven orbital order in CaMn7O12