Ferroelectric, Ferroelastic and Multiferroic Domain Walls: a New Horizon in Nanoscale Functional Materials
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Cambridge
Department Name: Earth Sciences
Abstract
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Organisations
Publications
Lu G
(2023)
Influence of kinks on the interaction energy between ferroelastic domain walls in membranes and thin films
in Microstructures
Zhang L
(2017)
Influence of local strain heterogeneity on high piezoelectricity in 0.5 Ba ( Z r 0.2 T i 0.8 ) O 3 - 0.5 ( B a 0.7 C a 0.3 ) Ti O 3 ceramics
in Physical Review B
He X
(2022)
Internal friction in complex ferroelastic twin patterns
in Acta Materialia
Salje E
(2023)
K.A. Müller and research on ferroic and polaronic materials
in Physica C: Superconductivity and its Applications
Salje E
(2023)
K.A. Müller and research on ferroic and polaronic materials
Kustov S
(2018)
LaAlO3: A substrate material with unusual ferroelastic properties
in Applied Physics Letters
McNulty J
(2020)
Local Structure and Order-Disorder Transitions in "Empty" Ferroelectric Tetragonal Tungsten Bronzes
in Chemistry of Materials
Beirau T
(2018)
Locally preserved a ? ß phase transition in natural radiation-damaged titanite (CaTiSiO5): evidence from laser-induced photoluminescence and dielectric measurements.
in Journal of physics. Condensed matter : an Institute of Physics journal
Aktas O
(2018)
Macroscopic symmetry breaking and piezoelectricity in relaxor ferroelectric lead magnesium niobate
in Applied Physics Letters
Fernandez-Posada C
(2022)
Magnetoelastic properties of multiferroic hexagonal ErMnO3
in Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials
Fernandez-Posada C
(2022)
Magnetoelastic properties of multiferroic hexagonal ErMnO3
Salje E
(2021)
Mild and wild ferroelectrics and their potential role in neuromorphic computation
in APL Materials
Yang Y
(2021)
Mild fluctuations in ferroelastic domain switching
in Physical Review B
Yang Y
(2021)
Mild fluctuations in ferroelastic domain switching
Chen Y
(2023)
Multibranches of acoustic emission as identifier for deformation mechanisms in additively manufactured 316L stainless steel
in Additive Manufacturing
Chen Y
(2021)
Multiple Avalanche Processes in Acoustic Emission Spectroscopy: Multibranching of the Energy-Amplitude Scaling
in physica status solidi (b)
Chen Y
(2022)
Multiple Avalanche Processes in Acoustic Emission Spectroscopy: Multibranching of the Energy-Amplitude Scaling
in physica status solidi (b)
Beirau T
(2019)
Nano-indentation and avalanches in compressed porous SiO2
in Applied Physics Letters
Salje E
(2019)
Nano-indentation and avalanches in compressed porous SiO2
Fernandez-Posada CM
(2021)
Order-disorder, ferroelasticity and mobility of domain walls in multiferroic Cu-Cl boracite.
in Journal of physics. Condensed matter : an Institute of Physics journal
Fernandez-Posada C
(2021)
Order-disorder, ferroelasticity and mobility of domain walls in multiferroic Cu-Cl boracite.
Description | We have identified unique combinations of microstructures in crystals which undergo phase transitions - with a focus on vortices and twin walls in materials including BaTiO3, ferroelectric tungsten bronzes, multiferroic orthorhombic perovskites, pnictide superconductors. This work has expanded greatly in terms of the range of domain wall materials that we have investigated successfully, and in terms of our successful collaborations with other members of the network group. More specifically, domain wall switching and the internal wall structure has been shown to divide into two categories: wild and mild. Wild switching results in highly correlated movements with power law statistics. This means that this switching is scale invariant in time and space and hence allows for high frequency applications in mobile phones etc. Mild switching is thermally activated and dominates in the deformation of wires, bio-mineralisation and some medical applications. Here the choice of the optimal frequency in key and applications rely not only on the amplitude of the switching process but also on the time span and hence the frequency of the pertubation. Ferroelectric switching, such as in BaTiO3, was shown to be history dependent and the nature of the morphotropic boundary in the commonly used material PZT was identified. It consists of highly correlated clusters of ferroelectric domains which act as units rather than splitting into individual domain walls. The same effect was found in cryogenic SrTiO3 near the quantum critical point where all domain movements become fully coherent. These effects dominate the mechanical properties (like the elasticity) of the material and generate piezoelectricity in nominally cubic materials. In theory, we have clarified wall-wall interactions in the bulk and in thin films, the interaction between domain boundaries with surfaces and the role of percolation in domain wall movements. We predicted weak magnetic signals when moving ferroelastic wall even without any magnetic atoms in the bulk. We identified the mixing properties of movements of different origin (like twin walls, dislocations, atomic defect displacements etc) during acoustic emission experiment which enlarges the way such techniques can now be used. |
Exploitation Route | We are expecting that the scientific progress we have made with respect to understanding the structure, dynamics and properties of domain walls will be of significant assistance to the electronics industry involved in the development of new nanoscale devices. Our work has been on fundamental aspects of the ways in which domain walls arising at phase transitions evolve, interact with each other and interact with strain fields. It forms the basis for ongoing research focussed more specifically on "Materials for neuromorphic circuits", a Marie-Curie network funded by the EU. |
Sectors | Electronics |