TY - JOUR
KW - Lead
KW - Transmission electron microscopy
KW - Excitation
KW - Iron
KW - Stress
KW - Engineering
KW - Polarization
KW - Article
KW - Surface property
KW - General device
KW - Immobility
KW - Needle
AU - P Gao
AU - J Britson
AU - C.T Nelson
AU - J.R Jokisaari
AU - C Duan
AU - M Trassin
AU - S.-H Baek
AU - H Guo
AU - L Li
AU - Y Wang
AU - Y.-H Chu
AU - A.M Minor
AU - C.-B Eom
AU - Ramamoorthy Ramesh
AU - L.-Q Chen
AU - X Pan
AB - In thin film ferroelectric devices, switching of ferroelastic domains can significantly enhance electromechanical response. Previous studies have shown disagreement regarding the mobility or immobility of ferroelastic domain walls, indicating that switching behaviour strongly depends on specific microstructures in ferroelectric systems. Here we study the switching dynamics of individual ferroelastic domains in thin Pb(Zr0.2,Ti0.8)O3 films under electrical and mechanical excitations by using in situ transmission electron microscopy and phase-field modelling. We find that ferroelastic domains can be effectively and permanently stabilized by dislocations at the substrate interface while similar domains at free surfaces without pinning dislocations can be removed by either electric or stress fields. For both electrical and mechanical switching, ferroelastic switching is found to occur most readily at the highly active needle points in ferroelastic domains. Our results provide new insights into the understanding of polarization switching dynamics as well as the engineering of ferroelectric devices. © 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited.
BT - Nature Communications
DO - 10.1038/ncomms4801
LA - eng
N1 - cited By 73
N2 - In thin film ferroelectric devices, switching of ferroelastic domains can significantly enhance electromechanical response. Previous studies have shown disagreement regarding the mobility or immobility of ferroelastic domain walls, indicating that switching behaviour strongly depends on specific microstructures in ferroelectric systems. Here we study the switching dynamics of individual ferroelastic domains in thin Pb(Zr0.2,Ti0.8)O3 films under electrical and mechanical excitations by using in situ transmission electron microscopy and phase-field modelling. We find that ferroelastic domains can be effectively and permanently stabilized by dislocations at the substrate interface while similar domains at free surfaces without pinning dislocations can be removed by either electric or stress fields. For both electrical and mechanical switching, ferroelastic switching is found to occur most readily at the highly active needle points in ferroelastic domains. Our results provide new insights into the understanding of polarization switching dynamics as well as the engineering of ferroelectric devices. © 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited.
PB - Nature Publishing Group
PY - 2014
T2 - Nature Communications
TI - Ferroelastic domain switching dynamics under electrical and mechanical excitations
VL - 5
SN - 20411723
ER -