Bundles of polytwins as meta-elastic domains in the thin polycrystalline simple multi-ferroic system PZT.

Ivry, Y and Chu, DP and Durkan, C (2010) Bundles of polytwins as meta-elastic domains in the thin polycrystalline simple multi-ferroic system PZT. Nanotechnology, 21. 065702-.

Abstract

We used enhanced piezo-response force microscopy (E-PFM) to investigate both ferroelastic and ferroelectric nanodomains in thin films of the simple multi-ferroic system PbZr(0.3)Ti(0.7)O(3) (PZT). We show how the grains are organized into a new type of elastic domain bundles of the well-known periodic elastic twins. Here we present these bundle domains and discuss their stability and origin. Moreover, we show that they can arrange in such a way as to release strain in a more effective way than simple twinning. Finally, we show that these bundle domains can arrange to form the macroscopic ferroelectric domains that constitute the basis of ferroelectric-based memory devices.

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