Effect of elastic domains on electromechanical response of epitaxial ferroelectric films with a three-domain architecture

doi:10.1007/s40145-013-0044-2

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Abstract

Thermodynamics of (001) epitaxial ferroelectric films completely relaxed due to the formation of elastic domains with a three-domain architecture is presented. The polydomain structure and electromechanical response of such films are analyzed for two cases corresponding to immobile and mobile elastic domain walls. It is shown that immobile elastic domains provide additional constraint which increases the mechanical and electrical clamping, thereby significantly reducing the piezoelectric and dielectric responses. On the other hand, a polydomain ferroelectric film adapts to the variations in the applied electric field by reversible domain wall displacements in the case of mobile domain walls. The comparison of the theory with experiments shows that the elastic domain walls are mobile in the fully relaxed films of ~ 1?μm thickness. In addition, if the substrate constraint is reduced via decreasing lateral size of a polydomain ferroelectric film, its piezoresponse will increase dramatically, as is experimentally verified on small islands of polydomain ferroelectric films. The general conclusions can be readily applied to other constrained polydomain films.

Key words： ferroelectrics domains epitaxial films domain wall thermodynamics electromechanical properties

Received: 28 January 2013 Published: 15 September 2015

Corresponding Authors: Jun OUYANG,Alexander L. ROYTBURD

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	Jun OUYANG
	Wei ZHANG
	S. Pamir ALPAY
	Alexander L. ROYTBURD

Cite this article:

Jun OUYANG,Wei ZHANG,S. Pamir ALPAY, et al. Effect of elastic domains on electromechanical response of epitaxial ferroelectric films with a three-domain architecture[J]. Journal of Advanced Ceramics, 2013, 2(1): 1-10.

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http://jac.tsinghuajournals.com/EN/10.1007/s40145-013-0044-2 OR http://jac.tsinghuajournals.com/EN/Y2013/V2/I1/1

(a) From left to right, the cubic paraelectric phase, the three ferroelectric tetragonal variants, and the atomic force microscopy image of the cellular domain structure existing in PZT thick films; (b) schematic evolution of the domain architecture as a function of the a-domain fraction; (c) phase–field modeling of domain evolution.

α0*) as functions of zirconium content in tetragonal PbZr_xTi_1-xO₃ solid solutions.">

Variations in δ and equilibrium c-domain fraction (1－α0*) as functions of zirconium content in tetragonal PbZr_xTi_1-xO₃ solid solutions.

Two different cases showing schematic domain arrangements due to the applied electric field E: (a) immobile 90° domain walls and (b) mobile 90° domain walls, with 180° domain walls within the polydomains adjust to E. The arrows in the domains represent the polarization vectors.

d33f(Δα=0)/d33 as a function of the a-domain fraction α0 and ξ.">

Normalized piezomodulus of the constrained film d33f(Δα=0)/d33 as a function of the a-domain fraction α0 and ξ.

Piezomoduli d₃₃ of epitaxial polydomain Pb(Zr_0.2Ti_0.8)O₃ films

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