Domain topology and domain switching kinetics in a hybrid improper ferroelectric
Charged polar interfaces such as charged ferroelectric walls or heterostructured interfaces of ZnO/(Zn,Mg)O and LaAlO 3 /SrTiO 3 , across which the normal component of electric polarization changes suddenly, can host large two-dimensional conduction. Charged ferroelectric walls, which are energetica...
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Published in | Nature communications Vol. 7; no. 1; p. 11602 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
London
Nature Publishing Group UK
24.05.2016
Nature Publishing Group Nature Portfolio |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Charged polar interfaces such as charged ferroelectric walls or heterostructured interfaces of ZnO/(Zn,Mg)O and LaAlO
3
/SrTiO
3
, across which the normal component of electric polarization changes suddenly, can host large two-dimensional conduction. Charged ferroelectric walls, which are energetically unfavourable in general, were found to be mysteriously abundant in hybrid improper ferroelectric (Ca,Sr)
3
Ti
2
O
7
crystals. From the exploration of antiphase boundaries in bilayer-perovskites, here we discover that each of four polarization-direction states is degenerate with two antiphase domains, and these eight structural variants form a Z
4
× Z
2
domain structure with Z
3
vortices and five distinct types of domain walls, whose topology is directly relevant to the presence of abundant charged walls. We also discover a zipper-like nature of antiphase boundaries, which are the reversible creation/annihilation centres of pairs of two types of ferroelectric walls (and also Z
3
-vortex pairs) in 90° and 180° polarization switching. Our results demonstrate the unexpectedly rich nature of hybrid improper ferroelectricity.
Charged ferroelectric domain walls show promise for two-dimensional conduction, but their abundance within (Ca,Sr)
3
Ti
2
O
7
crystals is poorly understood. Here, Huang
et al
. discover topology related domain structures in such materials, which reveal the rich nature of hybrid improper ferroelectricity. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Present address: Chongqing University of Science and Technology, Chongqing 401331, China |
ISSN: | 2041-1723 2041-1723 |
DOI: | 10.1038/ncomms11602 |