Mechanical softness of ferroelectric 180° domain walls
Stefani, Christina (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia)
Ponet, Louis (Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa, Itàlia))
Shapovalov, Konstantin (Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona)
Chen, Peng (Italian Institute of Technology)
Langenberg, Eric (Cornell University. Department of Materials Science and Engineering)
Schlom, Darrell G. (Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science)
Artyukhin, Sergey (Italian Institute of Technology)
Stengel, Massimiliano (Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats)
Domingo Marimon, Neus (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia)
Catalan, Gustau (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia)

Date:	2020
Abstract:	Using scanning probe microscopy, we measure the out-of-plane mechanical response of ferroelectric 180° domain walls and observe that, despite separating domains that are mechanically identical, the walls appear mechanically distinct-softer-compared to the domains. This effect is observed in different ferroelectric materials (LiNbO3, BaTiO3, and PbTiO3) and with different morphologies (from single crystals to thin films), suggesting that the effect is universal. We propose a theoretical framework that explains the domain wall softening and justifies that the effect should be common to all ferroelectrics. The lesson is, therefore, that domain walls are not only functionally different from the domains they separate, but also mechanically distinct.
Grants:	European Commission 754558 European Commission 708129 European Commission 724529 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad MAT2016-77100-C2-1-P Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad SEV-2015-0496 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2017/SGR-1506
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Mechanical response ; Mechanical softness ; Out-of plane ; Theoretical framework
Published in:	Physical Review, Vol. 10, issue 4 (Oct.-Des. 2020) , art. 041001, ISSN 2160-3308

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevX.10.041001

12 p, 5.5 MB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles