Strain control of domain-wall stability in epitaxial BiFeO3 (110) films
Publication Type
Journal Article
Authors
Cruz, M.P., Y.H. Chu, J.X. Zhang, P.L. Yang, F. Zavaliche, Q. He, P. Shafer, L.Q. Chen, Ramamoorthy Ramesh
DOI
Abstract
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.
Journal
Physical Review Letters
Volume
99
Year of Publication
2007
ISSN
00319007