Mesoscale flux-closure domain formation in single-crystal BaTiO3

R.G.P. McQuaid, L.J. McGilly, P. Sharma, A. Gruverman () and J.M. Gregg ()
Additional contact information
R.G.P. McQuaid: Centre for Nanostructured Media, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen's University Belfast
L.J. McGilly: Centre for Nanostructured Media, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen's University Belfast
P. Sharma: University of Nebraska
A. Gruverman: University of Nebraska
J.M. Gregg: Centre for Nanostructured Media, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen's University Belfast

Nature Communications, 2011, vol. 2, issue 1, 1-6

Abstract: Abstract Over 60 years ago, Charles Kittel predicted that quadrant domains should spontaneously form in small ferromagnetic platelets. He expected that the direction of magnetization within each quadrant should lie parallel to the platelet surface, minimizing demagnetizing fields,and that magnetic moments should be configured into an overall closed loop, or flux-closure arrangement. Although now a ubiquitous observation in ferromagnets, obvious flux-closure patterns have been somewhat elusive in ferroelectric materials. This is despite the analogous behaviour between these two ferroic subgroups and the recent prediction of dipole closure states by atomistic simulations research. Here we show Piezoresponse Force Microscopy images of mesoscopic dipole closure patterns in free-standing, single-crystal lamellae of BaTiO3. Formation of these patterns is a dynamical process resulting from system relaxation after the BaTiO3 has been poled with a uniform electric field. The flux-closure states are composed of shape conserving 90° stripe domains which minimize disclination stresses.

Date: 2011
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms1413 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:2:y:2011:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms1413

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1413

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().