Stability of a ferroelectric phase with electrical domains in multilayers

作者：Misirlioglu I B^*

来源：Applied Physics Letters, 2009, 94(17): 172907.

DOI：10.1063/1.3129872

• barium compounds
• electric domain walls
• ferroelectric materials
• free energy
• lead compounds
• multilayers
• strontium compounds

Multilayer BaTiO(3)-SrTiO(3) and PbTiO(3)-SrTiO(3) structures with different electrical domain states are studied using a Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire free energy. Polarizations in the layers are computed for multidomain and single-domain states where the paraelectric-to-ferroelectric volumetric layer ratio is varied. It is shown that the ferroelectric layers with electrical domains are thermodynamically more stable than the single-domain ferroelectric state. High domain wall energies result in the stabilization of the paraelectric state in the ferroelectric layers for large depolarizing fields. It is concluded that the stability of single-domain state ferroelectric layers correspond to a very small paraelectric-to-ferroelectric ratio after which multidomain ferroelectric state is favored.

• 出版日期2009-4-27