First-order morphological transition of ferroelastic domains in ferroelectric thin films

Jason Britson; Christopher Nelson; Xiaoqing Pan; Long Qing Chen

doi:10.1016/j.actamat.2014.04.049

First-order morphological transition of ferroelastic domains in ferroelectric thin films

Jason Britson, Christopher Nelson, Xiaoqing Pan, Long Qing Chen

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

Ferroelastic domains are common defects in epitaxial ferroelectric thin films, being typically observed around interfacial dislocations due to attractive elastic interactions. Because of their large stress fields, domain size and shape can influence local ferroelectric switching behavior. Here the morphology of ferroelastic domains in Pb(Zr_0.2, Ti _0.8)O₃ thin films is investigated as a function of film thickness and substrate strain using phase field modeling in combination with transmission electron microscopy. Increasing film thickness or strain is found to induce switching from typical ferroelastic domains extending to the free surface of the film to nanosized domains localized near the substrate interface. An analysis of thermodynamic properties reveals hysteretic and discontinuous changes in the first derivatives of the free energy resulting from competing electrostatic and elastic energies. Such first-order morphological transitions are expected to be very common in epitaxial thin films during switching under an external electric or stress field.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	188-197
Number of pages	10
Journal	Acta Materialia
Volume	75
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2014.04.049
State	Published - Aug 15 2014
Externally published	Yes

Funding

The theoretical component of this work at the Pennsylvania State University and the experimental component at the University of Michigan were supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering under Award FG02-07ER46417 (Britson and Chen) and Award FG02-07ER46416 (Nelson and Pan), respectively. Calculations at the Pennsylvania State University were performed on the Cyberstar Linux Cluster funded by the National Science Foundation through grant OCI-0821527 .

Funders	Funder number
Office of Basic Energy Sciences
US Department of Energy
National Science Foundation	OCI-0821527
Pennsylvania State University
Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering	FG02-07ER46416, FG02-07ER46417

Keywords

Domain structures
Ferroelastic
Ferroelectric
Phase field modeling
Phase morphology

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10.1016/j.actamat.2014.04.049

Cite this

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abstract = "Ferroelastic domains are common defects in epitaxial ferroelectric thin films, being typically observed around interfacial dislocations due to attractive elastic interactions. Because of their large stress fields, domain size and shape can influence local ferroelectric switching behavior. Here the morphology of ferroelastic domains in Pb(Zr0.2, Ti 0.8)O3 thin films is investigated as a function of film thickness and substrate strain using phase field modeling in combination with transmission electron microscopy. Increasing film thickness or strain is found to induce switching from typical ferroelastic domains extending to the free surface of the film to nanosized domains localized near the substrate interface. An analysis of thermodynamic properties reveals hysteretic and discontinuous changes in the first derivatives of the free energy resulting from competing electrostatic and elastic energies. Such first-order morphological transitions are expected to be very common in epitaxial thin films during switching under an external electric or stress field.",

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AU - Nelson, Christopher

AU - Pan, Xiaoqing

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AB - Ferroelastic domains are common defects in epitaxial ferroelectric thin films, being typically observed around interfacial dislocations due to attractive elastic interactions. Because of their large stress fields, domain size and shape can influence local ferroelectric switching behavior. Here the morphology of ferroelastic domains in Pb(Zr0.2, Ti 0.8)O3 thin films is investigated as a function of film thickness and substrate strain using phase field modeling in combination with transmission electron microscopy. Increasing film thickness or strain is found to induce switching from typical ferroelastic domains extending to the free surface of the film to nanosized domains localized near the substrate interface. An analysis of thermodynamic properties reveals hysteretic and discontinuous changes in the first derivatives of the free energy resulting from competing electrostatic and elastic energies. Such first-order morphological transitions are expected to be very common in epitaxial thin films during switching under an external electric or stress field.

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First-order morphological transition of ferroelastic domains in ferroelectric thin films

Abstract

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Keywords

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