Origin of sawtooth domain walls in ferroelectrics

Abstract

Domains and domain walls are among the key factors that determine the performance of ferroelectric materials. In recent years, a unique type of domain walls, i.e., the sawtooth-shaped domain walls, has been observed in BiFeO${}_3$ and PbTiO${}_3$. Here, we build a minimal model to reveal the origin of these sawtooth-shaped domain walls. Incorporating this model into Monte-Carlo simulations shows that (i) the competition between the long-range Coulomb interaction (due to bound charges) and short-range interaction (due to opposite dipoles) is responsible for the formation of these peculiar domain walls and (ii) their relative strength is critical in determining the periodicity of these sawtooth-shaped domain walls. Necessary conditions to form such domain walls are also discussed.

References in corpus (11)

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Cited by in corpus (2)

• First-principles study of two-dimensional electron and hole gases at the head-to-head and tail-to-tail 180${}^{\circ }$ domain walls in PbTiO${}_3$ ferroelectric thin films
• Zig-zag charged domain walls in ferroelectric PbTiO${}_3$