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3D polarization texture of a symmetric 4-fold flux closure domain in strained ferroelectric PbTiO3 films

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Abstract

Although the strong coupling of polarization to spontaneous strain in ferroelectrics would impart a flux-closure with severe disclination strains, recent studies have successfully stabilized such a domain via a nano-scaled multi-layer growth. Nonetheless, the detailed distributions of polarizations in three-dimensions (3D) and how the strains inside a flux closure affect the structures of domain walls are still less understood. Here we report a 3D polarization texture of a 4-fold flux closure domain identified in tensile strained ferroelectric PbTiO3/SrTiO3 multilayer films. Ferroelectric displacement analysis based on aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopic imaging reveals highly inhomogeneous strains with strain gradient above 107/m. These giant disclination strains significantly broaden the 90° domain walls, while the flexoelectric coupling at 180° domain wall is less affected. The present observations are helpful for understanding the basics of topological dipole textures and indicate novel applications of ferroelectrics through engineering strains.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51231007, 51571197, 51501194 and 51521091) and National Basic Research Program of China (2014CB921002). Y.L.T. acknowledges the IMR SYNL-T.S. Kê Research Fellowship and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS (No. 2016177). A.N.M. and E.A.E. acknowledge the financial support from the National Academy of Science of the Ukraine. Z.J.H. gratefully acknowledges the US National Science Foundation under NSF DMR-1210588 and DMR-1420620, and L-Q.C. acknowledges the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering under Award DE-FG02-07ER46417.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China

    Y. L. Tang, Y. L. Zhu, Y. J. Wang, Y. Liu, Y. B. Xu, B. Wu & X. L. Ma

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, 16802, USA

    Z. J. Hong & L. Q. Chen

  3. Institute for Problems of Materials Science, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, 03142, Ukraine

    E. A. Eliseev

  4. Institute of Physics, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, 03028, Ukraine

    A. N. Morozovska

  5. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117576, Singapore

    S. J. Pennycook

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  1. Y. L. Tang
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Tang, Y.L., Zhu, Y.L., Hong, Z.J. et al. 3D polarization texture of a symmetric 4-fold flux closure domain in strained ferroelectric PbTiO3 films. Journal of Materials Research 32, 957–967 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2016.259

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