Abstract
Fundamental understanding of domain dynamics in ferroic materials has been a longstanding issue because of its relevance to many systems and to the design of nanoscale domain-wall devices. Despite many theoretical and experimental studies, a full understanding of domain dynamics still remains incomplete, partly due to complex interactions between domain-walls and disorder. We report domain-shape-preserving deterministic domain-wall motion, which directly confirms microscopic return point memory, by observing domain-wall breathing motion in ferroelectric BiFeO3 thin film using stroboscopic piezoresponse force microscopy. Spatial energy landscape that provides new insights into domain dynamics is also mapped based on the breathing motion of domain walls. The evolution of complex domain structure can be understood by the process of occupying the lowest available energy states of polarization in the energy landscape which is determined by defect-induced internal fields. Our result highlights a pathway for the novel design of ferroelectric domain-wall devices through the engineering of energy landscape using defect-induced internal fields such as flexoelectric fields.
Highlights
Fundamental understanding of domain dynamics in ferroic materials has been a longstanding issue because of its relevance to many systems and to the design of nanoscale domain-wall devices
Such a deterministic DW motion has been a longstanding question related to microscopic return point memory, i.e., whether one point on the major hysteresis loop returns to the same microscopic domain configuration[22,23,24]
We report an intuitive approach to understanding complex domain dynamics in ferroelectric thin film, including domain nucleation and the propagation of DWs, by visualizing spatial energy landscape that correlates the energy landscape with defect-induced local internal fields
Summary
Fundamental understanding of domain dynamics in ferroic materials has been a longstanding issue because of its relevance to many systems and to the design of nanoscale domain-wall devices. A well controlled DW motion has been achieved by introducing artificial defects to engineer the energy landscape[21] Such a deterministic DW motion has been a longstanding question related to microscopic return point memory, i.e., whether one point on the major hysteresis loop returns to the same microscopic domain configuration[22,23,24]. We report an intuitive approach to understanding complex domain dynamics in ferroelectric thin film, including domain nucleation and the propagation of DWs, by visualizing spatial energy landscape that correlates the energy landscape with defect-induced local internal fields. Our work provides new insights into domain dynamics and highlights a new pathway for controlling DW motion in emerging technologies that exploit DWs by using defect-induced internal fields such as flexoelectric fields
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