Facilitation of Ferroelectric Switching via Mechanical Manipulation of Hierarchical Nanoscale Domain Structures

摘要

Heterogeneous ferroelastic transition that produces hierarchical 90 degrees tetragonal nanodomains via mechanical loading and its effect on facilitating ferroelectric domain switching in relaxor-based ferro-electrics were explored. Combining in situ electron microscopy characterization and phase-field modeling, we reveal the nature of the transition process and discover that the transition lowers by 40% the electrical loading threshold needed for ferroelectric domain switching. Our results advance the fundamental understanding of ferroelectric domain switching behavior.