Electric field control of antiferroelectric domain pattern
S. B. Vakhrushev, Daria Andronikova, Iu. A. Bronwald, E. Yu. Koroleva, Dmitry Chernyshov, A. V. Filimonov, S. A. Udovenko, A. I. Rudskoy, Daisuke Ishikawa, Alfred Q. R. Baron, Alexeï Bosak, I. N. Leontiev, A. K. Tagantsev
Abstract
Control of domain and domain wall configurations in antiferroelectrics is a necessary step towards practical use of new functionalities based on polar domain wall structures. Here we propose and demonstrate a domain engineering scheme that provides an antiferroelectric state with only one type of orientational domains and one type of walls. We demonstrate with in situ synchrotron diffraction experiment that in a material, where the transition from the high-symmetry nonpolar phase to that antiferroelectric occurs via crossing an intermediate, once the transition is passed under a moderate electric field, the final antiferroelectric domain state can be fully controlled. A theoretical analysis shows that such a phenomenon can be explained in terms of biquadratic coupling between the polarization and antiferroelectric order parameter. This analysis also suggests that the electric-field control of the antiferroelectric state may be possible in a more general case where the intermediate ferroelectric state is absent. Anisotropy of lattice excitations in the intermediate polar phase under electric field is uncovered by an inelastic x-ray scattering experiment, which indicates that lattice instability is a driving force of transformation towards antiferroelectric phase despite of a strong first character of the transition.