Confinement-Driven Inverse Domain Scaling in Polycrystalline ErMnO3
Schultheiss, Jan; Xue, Fei; Roede, Erik Dobloug; Ånes, Håkon Wiik; Danmo, Frida Hemstad; Selbach, Sverre Magnus; Chen, Long-Qing; Meier, Dennis
Peer reviewed, Journal article
Published version
Date
2022Metadata
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- Institutt for materialteknologi [2652]
- Publikasjoner fra CRIStin - NTNU [39860]
Abstract
The research on topological phenomena in ferroelectric materials has revolutionized the way people understand polar order. Intriguing examples are polar skyrmions, vortex/anti-vortex structures, and ferroelectric incommensurabilties, which promote emergent physical properties ranging from electric-field-controllable chirality to negative capacitance effects. Here, the impact of topologically protected vortices on the domain formation in improper ferroelectric ErMnO3 polycrystals is studied, demonstrating inverted domain scaling behavior compared to classical ferroelectrics. It is observed that as the grain size increases, smaller domains are formed. Phase field simulations reveal that elastic strain fields drive the annihilation of vortex/anti-vortex pairs within the grains and individual vortices at the grain boundaries. The inversion of the domain scaling behavior has far-reaching implications, providing fundamentally new opportunities for topology-based domain engineering and the tuning of the electromechanical and dielectric performance of ferroelectrics in general.