TY - JOUR
KW - Energy
KW - Spectroscopy
KW - Kinetics
KW - Electrochemical analysis
KW - Materials testing
KW - Article
KW - Priority journal
KW - Calculation
KW - Phase transition
KW - Thermodynamics
KW - Iron derivative
KW - Protein domain
AU - S.V Kalinin
AU - B.J Rodriguez
AU - S Jesse
AU - Y.H Chu
AU - T Zhao
AU - Ramamoorthy Ramesh
AU - S Choudhury
AU - L.Q Chen
AU - E.A Eliseev
AU - A.N Morozovska
AB - Ferroelectric domain nucleation and growth in multiferroic BiFeO3 is studied on a single-domain level by using piezoresponse force spectroscopy. Variation of local electromechanical response with dc tip bias is used to determine the size of the domain formed below the conductive scanning probe tip. The domain parameters are calculated self-consistently from the decoupled Green function theory by using tip geometry determined from the domain wall profile. The critical parameters of the nucleating domain and the activation energy for nucleation are determined. The switching mechanism is modeled by using the phase-field method, and comparison with experimental results shows that the nucleation biases are within a factor of ≈2 of the intrinsic thermodynamic limit. The role of atomic-scale defects and long-range elastic fields on nucleation bias lowering is discussed. These measurements open a pathway for quantitative studies of the role of a single defect on kinetics and thermodynamics of first order bias-induced phase transitions and electrochemical reactions. © 2007 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA.
BT - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
DO - 10.1073/pnas.0709316104
LA - eng
M1 - 51
N1 - cited By 67
N2 - Ferroelectric domain nucleation and growth in multiferroic BiFeO3 is studied on a single-domain level by using piezoresponse force spectroscopy. Variation of local electromechanical response with dc tip bias is used to determine the size of the domain formed below the conductive scanning probe tip. The domain parameters are calculated self-consistently from the decoupled Green function theory by using tip geometry determined from the domain wall profile. The critical parameters of the nucleating domain and the activation energy for nucleation are determined. The switching mechanism is modeled by using the phase-field method, and comparison with experimental results shows that the nucleation biases are within a factor of ≈2 of the intrinsic thermodynamic limit. The role of atomic-scale defects and long-range elastic fields on nucleation bias lowering is discussed. These measurements open a pathway for quantitative studies of the role of a single defect on kinetics and thermodynamics of first order bias-induced phase transitions and electrochemical reactions. © 2007 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA.
PY - 2007
SP - 20204
EP - 20209
T2 - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
TI - Intrinsic single-domain switching in ferroelectric materials on a nearly ideal surface
VL - 104
SN - 00278424
ER -