Phase transitions, stability, and dielectric response of the domain structure in ferroelectric-ferroelastic thin films

Abstract

We present the first analytical study of phase transitions in ferroelastic-ferroelectric epitaxial thin films on exactly solvable model. The emerging domain structure with domains of equal width (which may be exponentially large on a "soft" substrate) always remains stable irrespective of the film thickness. The dielectric response of an epitaxial film is {\em smaller} than that of a free film, in striking contrast with assertions in the literature.

5 pages, REVTeX 3.1 with one eps-figure

References in corpus (3)

• Abrupt appearance of the domain pattern and fatigue of thin ferroelectric films
• Polarization Instability in Polydomain Ferroelectric Epitaxial Thin Films and the Formation of Heterophase Structures
• Easy collective polarization switching in ferroelectrics

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Physics of thin-film ferroelectric oxides
• Fractal dimension and size scaling of domains in thin films of multiferroic BiFeO3
• Ferroelectric Phase Transitions in Ultra-thin Films of BaTiO3
• Formation and rapid evolution of domain structure at phase transitions in slightly inhomogeneous ferroelectrics and ferroelastics
• Specific heat and heat conductivity of the BaTiO3 polycrystalline films with the thickness in the range 20 - 1100 nm
• Periodicity doubling cascades: direct observation in ferroelastic materials
• Phase Diagrams and Domain Splitting in Thin Ferroelectric Films with Incommensurate Phases
• Proper ferroelastic phase transitions in thin epitaxial films with symmetry-conserving and symmetry-breaking misfit strains
• Negative bulk modulus and possibility of loss of elastic stability near tricritical transitions in thin films on substrates