Exploration of the intrinsic inertial response of ferroelectric domain walls via molecular dynamics simulations

Abstract

The motion of ferroelectric domain walls (DWs) is critical for various applications of ferroelectric materials. One important question that is of interest both scientifically and technologically, is whether the ferroelectric DW has significant inertial response. To address this problem, we performed canonical ensemble molecular dynamics simulations of 180° and 90° DWs under applied electric fields. Examination of the evolution of the polarization and local structure of DWs reveals that they stop moving immediately after the removal of electric field. Thus, our computational study shows that ferroelectric DWs do not have significant intrinsic inertial response.