Domain wall dynamics in tungsten trioxide: Evidence for polar domain walls

Jack T. Eckstein, Hiroko Yokota, Neus Domingo, Gustau Catalan, Oktay Aktas, Michael A. Carpenter, Ekhard K.H. Salje

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Domain walls have distinct properties from the bulk, and tailoring them to suit the needs for device applications is critical. Tungsten trioxide, WO3, is of great interest for device applications that make use of domain wall properties; it exhibits a phenomenologically rich sequence of phase transitions, virtually all of which are ferroelastic in character, resulting in many sets of domain walls at low temperatures, each with their own unique properties. Domain wall motion and its contribution to the piezoelectric response have been investigated in WO3 from 300 to 180 K using resonant ultrasound spectroscopy (RUS) and resonant piezoelectric spectroscopy (RPS), which showed that the P21/n,P1¯, and P21/c phases give a piezoelectric response despite the bulk being nominally centrosymmetric. Second harmonic generation (SHG) confirmed that polarity was strongest within the domain walls, and additional weak signals were found in the domains. Domain wall mobility was investigated in the Pbcn,P21/n, and P21/c phases from 685 to 5 K. Domain walls in the P21/n and P1¯ were more mobile than those in the Pbcn and P21/c structures, and soon after the P1¯→P21/c transition the walls become pinned at ∼140K.

Original languageEnglish
Article number094107
JournalPhysical Review B
Volume110
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 1 2024

Funding

The project has received funding from the EU's Horizon 2020 programme under the Marie Sk\u0142odowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 861153. Research was supported by the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS), which is a US Department of Energy, Office of Science User Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. This work has received funding from JST FOREST Grants No. JPMJFR213Z, No. JSPS KAKENHI, No. JP21H01010, No. JP22H05138, and No. JP24K00554. This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Grant No. EP/P024904/1 to E.K.H.S. and M.A.C.

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