Abstract
The mechanical properties of materials are insensitive to space inversion, even when they are crystallographically asymmetric. In practice, this means that turning a piezoelectric crystal upside down or switching the polarization of a ferroelectric should not change its mechanical response. Strain gradients, however, introduce an additional source of asymmetry that has mechanical consequences. Using nanoindentation and contact-resonance force microscopy, this study demonstrates that the mechanical response to indentation of a uniaxial ferroelectric (LiNbO3) does change when its polarity is switched, and use this mechanical asymmetry both to quantify its flexoelectricity and to mechanically read the sign of its ferroelectric domains.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 1702210 |
| Journal | Advanced Materials |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue number | 37 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 4 2017 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
K.C.-E. and G.C. acknowledge ERC Starting Grant 308023. Financial support was obtained under projects from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) under projects FIS2013-48668-C2-1-P and FIS2015-73932-JIN, and the MAT2014-57960-C3-1-R cofinanced by the “Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional” (FEDER). ICN2 acknowledges support from the Severo Ochoa Program (MINECO, Grant No. SEV-2013-0295). This work was partially funded by 2014-SGR-1015 and 2014-SGR-1216 projects from the Generalitat de Catalunya.
Keywords
- ferroelectric memories
- ferroelectricity
- flexoelectricity
- mechanical properties
- mechanical reading polarity
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