Universal Properties of Ferroelectric Domains

TL;DR

This paper generalizes the Kittel theory using Ginzburg-Landau approach to describe ferroelectric domain behavior, resolving surface polarization issues and providing a scaling method for different ferroelectric structures.

Contribution

It introduces a generalized model for ferroelectric domains, addressing near-surface polarization behavior and offering a new scaling approach for comparing ferroelectric samples.

Findings

Polarization vanishes near the surface instead of fractal branching.

Derived an interpolation formula for temperature-dependent polarization profiles.

Provided a scaling method for different ferroelectric geometries.

Abstract

Basing on Ginzburg-Landau approach we generalize the Kittel theory and derive the interpolation formula for the temperature evolution of a multi-domain polarization profile P(x,z). We resolve the long-standing problem of the near-surface polarization behavior in ferroelectric domains and demonstrate the polarization vanishing instead of usually assumed fractal domain branching. We propose an effective scaling approach to compare the properties of different domain-containing ferroelectric plates and films.