Formation of self-organized nanodomain patterns during spontaneous backswitching in lithium niobate

Abstract

We show experimentally that spontaneous decay of highly non-equilibrium domain state in ferroelectric is achieved through the formation of self-organized nanoscale domain structures. The nanodomain structures have been observed by SEM and SFM in uniaxial ferroelectric lithium niobate during spontaneous backswitching after fast removing of switching field. The regular nanoscale domain patterns consist of strictly oriented arrays of nanodomains (diameter down to 30 nm, density up to 100 μm−2). The mechanisms of self-maintaining correlated nucleation effects are discussed.