Nonlinear Dynamics of Domain Wall Propagation in Epitaxial Ferroelectric Thin Films

TL;DR

This study explores the nonlinear behavior of ferroelectric domain wall movement in epitaxial Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 thin films across a broad temperature spectrum, revealing complex velocity regimes influenced by disorder and elasticity.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the nonlinear dynamics and classification of domain wall velocities in epitaxial ferroelectric films, highlighting the roles of disorder and elastic interactions.

Findings

Domain wall velocity exhibits strong nonlinearity with electric fields.

Identification of creep, depinning, and flow regimes in domain wall motion.

Domain walls are fractal and pinned by disorder-induced local fields.

Abstract

We investigated the ferroelectric domain wall propagation in epitaxial Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 thin films over a wide temperature range (3 - 300 K). We measured the domain wall velocity under various electric fields and found that the velocity data is strongly nonlinear with electric fields, especially at low temperature. We found that, as one of surface growth problems, our domain wall velocity data from ferroelectric epitaxial film could be classified into the creep, depinning, and flow regimes due to competition between disorder and elasticity. The measured values of velocity and dynamical exponents indicate that the ferroelectric domain walls in the epitaxial films are fractal and pinned by a disorder-induced local field.