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| Home > Publications database > Super switching and control of in-plane Ferroelectric Nanodomains in strained thin Films |
| Conference Presentation (After Call) | PUBDB-2015-00206 |
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2014
Abstract: Increasing miniaturization in ferroelectrics allows creating complex domain structures with novel functionalities particularly interesting for the development of nanoelectronic devices. Recently, exotic dipole arrangements forming flux-closures have been observed to occur spontaneously, mainly at crystal edges or in nano-objects, but their formation remains not fully understood. In this work, we use epitaxial strain in PbxSr1−xTiO3 ferroelectric thin films grown on (110)-DyScO3 to control a complex domain architecture at two scales with a purely in-plane polarization, that can be easily switched by a scanning probe. We show that periodic 90° a1-a2 stripe nanodomains self-organize into so-called ‘superdomains’ at larger scales. Unlike previous reports where significant depolarizing fields are expected to affect the domain formation, our results prove that these hierarchical domain arrangements, forming flux-closure states, can be stabilized in extended thin films, where strain-equivalent superdomains are created to emulate the single-domain ground state. Importantly, despite the inherent difficulty to switch in-plane polarizations, the hierarchical domain organization allows the polarization to be manipulated with the electric field available through a scanning probe, offering promising perspectives to design novel electronic devices based on thin films with vertical domain walls and no effect of depolarizing field.
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