Folding Catastrophes due to Viscosity in Multiferroic Domains: Implications for Room-Temperature Multiferroic Switching

TL;DR

This paper models folding catastrophes in multiferroic domains as saddle-node bifurcations, revealing how viscosity influences domain wall patterns and implications for room-temperature multiferroic switching.

Contribution

It introduces a novel modeling approach for multiferroic domain folding catastrophes based on viscous medium dynamics and bifurcation theory.

Findings

Domains with curved walls are explained as folding catastrophes.

Ferroelectric films can exhibit either folds or vortex patterns, but not both.

The model connects domain wall behavior to viscous and bifurcation dynamics.

Abstract

Unusual domains with curved walls and failure to satisfy the Landau-Lifshitz-Kittel Law are modeled as folding catastrophes (saddle-node bifurcations). This description of ballistic motion in a viscous medium is based upon early work by Dawber et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 82, 436 (2003). It suggests that ferroelectric films can exhibit folds or vortex patterns but not both.