Domain and Phase De-strain - Formation of Ferroelastic Domain Structures

Abstract

Phase decomposition is a well-known process leading to the formation of two-phase mixtures. Here we show that a strain imposed on a ferroelastic crystal promotes the formation of mixed phases and domains, i.e., domain and phase de-strain with local strains determined by a common tangent construction on the free energy versus strain curves. It is demonstrated that a domain structure can be understood using the concepts of domain/phase rule, lever rule, coherent and incoherent de-strain within the de-strain model description, in a complete analogy to phase decomposition. The proposed de-strain model is validated using phase-field simulations and experimental observations of PbTiO_3 and BiFeO_3 thin films as examples. The de-strain model provides a simple tool to guide and design domain structures of ferroelastic systems.

arXiv comment18 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PRL on 22Jan16, and reported on the 2016 MRS spring meeting

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Cited by in corpus (5)

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• Transient Electronic Phase Separation During Metal-Insulator Transitions
• The geometry of high-dimensional phase diagrams: I. Generalized Gibbs Phase Rule
• An empirical approach to measuring interface energies in mixed-phase bismuth ferrite
• Stability and low-energy orientations of interphase boundaries in multiaxial ferroelectrics: Phase-field simulations