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
Fernandez-Posada C
(2021)
Order-disorder, ferroelasticity and mobility of domain walls in multiferroic Cu-Cl boracite.
Carpenter MA
(2021)
Strain relaxation dynamics of multiferroic orthorhombic manganites.
in Journal of physics. Condensed matter : an Institute of Physics journal
Casals B
(2021)
The duration-energy-size enigma for acoustic emission
Carpenter M
(2021)
Strain relaxation dynamics of multiferroic orthorhombic manganites.
Shao G
(2022)
Acoustic emission study on avalanche dynamics of ferroelectric switching in lead zirconate titanate ceramics
in Journal of Applied Physics
Carpenter M
(2022)
Static and dynamic strain relaxation associated with the paraelectric-antiferroelectric phase transition in PbZrO3
in Journal of Alloys and Compounds
Salje E
(2022)
Porosity in minerals
Eckstein J
(2022)
Symmetry and strain analysis of combined electronic and structural instabilities in tungsten trioxide, WO3
in Journal of Applied Physics
Xu Y
(2022)
Avalanches during ferroelectric and ferroelastic switching in barium titanate ceramics
in Physical Review Materials
Chen Y
(2022)
Multiple Avalanche Processes in Acoustic Emission Spectroscopy: Multibranching of the Energy-Amplitude Scaling
in physica status solidi (b)
Weber M
(2022)
Emerging spin-phonon coupling through cross-talk of two magnetic sublattices
in Nature Communications
He Z
(2022)
Depolarization of ferroelectric materials measured by their piezoelectric and elastic response
in Journal of Alloys and Compounds
Scott JJR
(2022)
Avalanche criticality in LaAlO[Formula: see text] and the effect of aspect ratio.
in Scientific reports
He X
(2022)
Internal friction in complex ferroelastic twin patterns
in Acta Materialia
Fernandez-Posada C
(2022)
Magnetoelastic properties of multiferroic hexagonal ErMnO3
in Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials
Kustov S
(2022)
Phase transitions in the ferroelectric relaxor ( 1 - x ) Pb ( Mg 1 / 3 Nb 2 / 3 ) O 3 - x PbTi O 3 close to the morphotropic phase boundary
in Physical Review Materials
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 |