2011/04/26 by Hyejung Chang, Sergei V. Kalinin, Seungyeul Yang +9 · 63 citations
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Electric field #Ferroelectric and Negative Capacitance Devices #Ferroelectric and Piezoelectric Materials #Mesoscopic physics #Metastability #Multiferroics #Multiferroics and related materials #Nucleation #Polarization (electrochemistry) #Scanning electron microscope #Scanning transmission electron microscopy #Transmission electron microscopy #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.1063/1.3623779
published in Journal of Applied Physics 110(5) (American Institute of Physics)
arxiv created 2011/04/26 · openalex publication_date 2011/09/01 · arxiv updated 2011/09/05 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Ferroelectric domain nucleation and growth in multiferroic BiFeO3 films is observed directly by applying a local electric field with a conductive tip inside a scanning transmission electron microscope. The nucleation and growth of a ferroelastic domain and its interaction with pre-existing 71° domain walls are observed and compared with the results of phase-field modeling. In particular, a preferential nucleation site and direction-dependent pinning of domain walls are observed due to slow kinetics of metastable switching in the sample without a bottom electrode. These in situ spatially resolved observations of a first-order bias-induced phase transition reveal the mesoscopic mechanisms underpinning functionality of a wide range of multiferroic materials.