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Assessing the Ubiquity of Bloch Domain Walls in Ferroelectric Lead Titanate Superlattices

Published inPhysical review. X, vol. 14, no. 4, 041052
First online date2024-11-26
Abstract

The observation of unexpected polarization textures such as vortices, skyrmions, and merons in various oxide heterostructures has challenged the widely accepted picture of ferroelectric domain walls as being Ising-like. Bloch components in the 180° domain walls of PbTiO 3 have recently been reported in PbTiO 3 / SrTiO 3 superlattices and linked to domain wall chirality. While this opens exciting perspectives, the ubiquity of this Bloch component remains to be further explored. In this work, we present a comprehensive investigation of domain walls in PbTiO 3 / SrTiO 3 superlattices, involving a combination of first- and second-principles calculations, phase-field simulations, diffuse scattering calculations, and synchrotron-based diffuse x-ray scattering. Our theoretical calculations highlight that the previously predicted Bloch polarization in the 180° domain walls in PbTiO 3 / SrTiO 3 superlattices might be more sensitive to the boundary conditions than initially thought and is not always expected to appear. Employing diffuse scattering calculations for larger systems, we develop a method to probe the complex structure of domain walls in these superlattices via diffuse x-ray scattering measurements. Through this approach, we investigate depolarization-driven ferroelectric polarization rotation at the domain walls. Our experimental findings, consistent with our theoretical predictions for realistic domain periods, do not reveal any signatures of a Bloch component in the centers of the 180° domain walls of PbTiO 3 / SrTiO 3 superlattices, suggesting that the precise nature of domain walls in the ultrathin PbTiO 3 layers is more intricate than previously thought and deserves further attention.

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ZATTERIN, Edoardo et al. Assessing the Ubiquity of Bloch Domain Walls in Ferroelectric Lead Titanate Superlattices. In: Physical review. X, 2024, vol. 14, n° 4, p. 041052. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevX.14.041052
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Additional URL for this publicationhttps://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevX.14.041052
Journal ISSN2160-3308
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