Engineering of atomic-scale flexoelectricity at grain boundaries

Mei Wu, Xiaowei Zhang, Xiaomei Li, Ke Qu, Yuanwei Sun, Bo Han, Ruixue Zhu, Xiaoyue Gao, Jingmin Zhang, Kaihui Liu, Xuedong Bai, Xin-Zheng Li () and Peng Gao ()
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Mei Wu: Peking University
Xiaowei Zhang: Peking University
Xiaomei Li: Peking University
Ke Qu: Peking University
Yuanwei Sun: Peking University
Bo Han: Peking University
Ruixue Zhu: Peking University
Xiaoyue Gao: Peking University
Jingmin Zhang: Peking University
Kaihui Liu: Peking University
Xuedong Bai: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xin-Zheng Li: Peking University
Peng Gao: Peking University

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Flexoelectricity is a type of ubiquitous and prominent electromechanical coupling, pertaining to the electrical polarization response to mechanical strain gradients that is not restricted by the symmetry of materials. However, large elastic deformation is usually difficult to achieve in most solids, and the strain gradient at minuscule is challenging to control. Here, we exploit the exotic structural inhomogeneity of grain boundary to achieve a huge strain gradient (~1.2 nm−1) within 3–4-unit cells, and thus obtain atomic-scale flexoelectric polarization of up to ~38 μC cm−2 at a 24° LaAlO3 grain boundary. Accompanied by the generation of the nanoscale flexoelectricity, the electronic structures of grain boundaries also become different. Hence, the flexoelectric effect at grain boundaries is essential to understand the electrical activities of oxide ceramics. We further demonstrate that for different materials, altering the misorientation angles of grain boundaries enables tunable strain gradients at the atomic scale. The engineering of grain boundaries thus provides a general and feasible pathway to achieve tunable flexoelectricity.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-27906-0

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