Super switching and control of in-plane ferroelectric nanodomains in strained thin films

摘要

With shrinking device sizes, controlling domain formation in nanoferroelectrics becomescrucial. Periodic nanodomains that self-organize into so-called ‘superdomains’ have beenrecently observed, mainly at crystal edges or in laterally confined nanoobjects. Here we showthat in extended, strain-engineered thin films, superdomains with purely in-plane polarizationform to mimic the single-domain ground state, a new insight that allows a priori design ofthese hierarchical domain architectures. Importantly, superdomains behave like strain-neutralentities whose resultant polarization can be reversibly switched by 90 deg, offering promisingperspectives for novel device geometries.