Strain control of domain-wall stability in epitaxial BiFeO3 (110) films

Journal Article

Cruz, M.P, Y.H Chu, J.X Zhang, P.L Yang, F Zavaliche, Q He, P Shafer, L.Q Chen, Ramamoorthy Ramesh

10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.217601

We have studied the stability of domains and domain walls in multiferroic BiFeO3 thin films using a combination of piezoelectric force microscopy and phase-field simulations. We have discovered that a film-substrate misfit strain may result in a drastically different thermodynamic stability of two parallel domain walls with the same orientation. A fundamental understanding of the underlying physics, the stress distribution in a domain structure, leads to a novel approach to control the ferroelastic domain stability in the multiferroic BiFeO3 system. © 2007 The American Physical Society.

Physical Review Letters

99

2007

00319007

cited By 87

Ramesh Lab