Mechanical-force-induced non-local collective ferroelastic switching in epitaxial lead-titanate thin films
Abstract
Ferroelastic switching in ferroelectric/multiferroic oxides plays a crucial role in determining their dielectric, piezoelectric, and magnetoelectric properties. In thin films of these materials, however, substrate clamping is generally thought to limit the electric-field- or mechanical-force-driven responses to the local scale. Here, we report mechanical-force-induced large-area, non-local, collective ferroelastic domain switching in PbTiO3 epitaxial thin films by tuning the misfit-strain to be near a phase boundary wherein c/a and a1/a2 nanodomains coexist. Phenomenological models suggest that the collective, c-a-c-a ferroelastic switching arises from the small potential barrier between the degenerate domain structures, and the large anisotropy of a and c domains, which collectively generates much larger response and large-area domain propagation. Large-area, non-local response under small stimuli, unlike traditional local response to external field, provides an opportunity of unique response to local stimuli, which has potential for use in high-sensitivity pressure sensors and switches.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Sep 02, 2019
- Source ID
- 10.1038/s41467-019-11825-2
Entities
People
- Guoqiang Xie
- Hangbo Zhang
- Huaping Wu
- Jiangyu Li
- Lane W Martin
- Lang Chen
- Limei Zheng
- Long-Qing Chen
- Lu You
- Ruijuan Xu
- Sahar Seremi
- Sujit Das
- Weiming Lv
- Wenwu Cao
- Xiaoyan Lu
- Xingjun Liu
- Ye Cao
- Yongqi Dong
- Yun‐Long Tang
- Zhan Zhang
- Zuhuang Chen