(a) Free energy landscape in a highly pinned ferroelectric system indicating small biases allow for metastable frustrated domain energies where large biases result in preferred lower energy minima.
(b) Corresponding FerroBot images for different free energy vs. domain wall displacement locations (i, ii, iii).
(b) Corresponding FerroBot images for different free energy vs. domain wall displacement locations (i, ii, iii).
Scientific Achievement
An automated scanning probe microscopy (SPM) experimental platform, FerroBot, has been utilized to discover a novel ferroelectric state with a high electromechanical response.
Significance and Impact
This automated approach can be employed more broadly to access non-equilibrium phases with novel properties, providing fundamental insight and improving the functional behavior of materials.
Research Details
- Piezoresponse force microscopy with an in situ image-based bias feedback was employed to create frustrated ferroelectric domain states in PbTiO3
- Frustrated phases created possess enhanced electromechanical response with proposed mechanisms verified via phase field modeling
- Process is reversible with selection of bias voltage
Kyle P. Kelley, Yao Ren, Anna N. Morozovska, Eugene A. Eliseev, Yoshitaka Ehara, Hiroshi Funakubo, Thierry Giamarchi, Nina Balke, Rama K. Vasudevan, Ye Cao, Stephen Jesse, and Sergei V. Kalinin, "Dynamic Manipulation in Piezoresponse Force Microscopy: Creating Nonequilibrium Phases with Large Electromechanical Response," ACS Nano (2020). https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.0c04601
