Microscopic domain walls in quantum ferroelectrics

摘要

It is well known that uniaxial ferroelectrics undergoing isotope effects do not admit a classical description of the dynamics and phase transitions. We show that the non-linear equation governing the dynamics of domain walls in a model of quantum uniaxial ferroelectrics is nevertheless similar to the classical case. However, while in the classical ferroelectric domain walls are macroscopic topological objects, in the quantum ferroelectric they are microscopic nonlinear excitations which carry a (phase) transition energy of the order of the ground state quantum energy in the system. (author). 18 refs. (Atomindex citation 27:046090)