Closed-circuit domain quadruplets in BaTiO.sub.3./sub. nanorods embedded in a SrTiO.sub.3./sub. film

0427116 - FZÚ 2015 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Stepkova, Vilgelmina - Márton, Pavel - Setter, N. - Hlinka, Jiří
Closed-circuit domain quadruplets in BaTiO₃ nanorods embedded in a SrTiO₃ film.
Physical Review. B. Roč. 89, č. 6 (2014), "060101-1"-"060101-6". ISSN 1098-0121
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GAP204/11/1011
Institutional support: RVO:68378271
Keywords : Ginzburg-Landau-Devonshire model * phase-field approach * nanorods * BaTiO₃/SrTiO₃ heterostructures
Subject RIV: BM - Solid Matter Physics ; Magnetism
Impact factor: 3.736, year: 2014

Cylindrical BaTiO3 nanorods embedded in 100 -oriented SrTiO3 epitaxial film in a brushlike configuration are investigated in the framework of the Ginzburg-Landau-Devonshire model. It is shown that strain compatibility at BaTiO3/SrTiO3 interfaces keeps BaTiO3 nanorods in the rhombohedral phase even at room temperature. Depolarization field at the BaTiO3/SrTiO3 interfaces is reduced by an emission of the 109 or 71-degree domain boundaries. In case of 10–80-nm diameter nanorods, the ferroelectric domains are found to form a quadruplet with a robust flux-closure arrangement of the in-plane components of the spontaneous polarization. The out-of-plane components of the polarization are either balanced or oriented up or down along the nanorod axis. More complex stable domain configurations with coexisting clockwise and anticlockwise quadruplets contain interesting arrangement of strongly curved 71-degree boundaries.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0232734