Scientific Achievement
Piezoelectric domain walls, absent in conventional ferroelectrics, were detected in layered CuInP2Se6 crystals, signaling rare co-existence of ferro- and antiferroelectric phases in the same material.
Significance and Impact
Piezoelectricity now joins an expanding range of functionalities exhibited by domain walls, leading to new device prospects utilizing the control of materials by applied fields.
Research Details
– Domain walls typically exhibit zero piezoresponse. CuInP
2Se
6 revealed the opposite with the largest piezoresponse localized to domain walls.
– Quantitative microscopy combined with theory and optical spectroscopy revealed co-existence of ferroelectric and antiferroelectric states, not observed previously.
– Phase co-existence can be controlled by applied fields.
Andrius Dziaugys, Kyle Kelley, John A. Brehm, Lei Tao3, Alexander Puretzky, Tianli Feng, Andrew O’Hara, Sabine Neumayer, Marius Chyasnavichyus, Eugene A. Eliseev, Juras Banys, Yulian Vysochanskii, Feng Ye, Bryan C. Chakoumakos, Michael A. Susner, Michael A. McGuire, Sergei V. Kalinin, Panchapakesan Ganesh, Nina Balke, Sokrates T. Pantelides, Anna N. Morozovska, and Petro Maksymovych,"Piezoelectric domain walls in van der Waals antiferroelectric CuInP
2Se
6," Nature Communications (2020).
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17137-0