Pressure induced switching in ferroelectrics: on the junction between physics and electrochemistry

TL;DR

This paper investigates pressure-induced polarization switching in ferroelectric thin films, exploring various mechanisms and their complex interactions through modeling, revealing intricate switching behaviors dependent on pressure and film thickness.

Contribution

It classifies potential mechanisms for pressure-induced switching and uses phase-field modeling to analyze their interplay and resulting complex switching diagrams.

Findings

Magnitudes of different effects are comparable.

Switching diagrams are complex with non-trivial topology.

Regions of switchability depend on pressure and film thickness.

Abstract

Pressure-induced polarization switching in ferroelectric thin films has emerged as a powerful method for domain patterning, allowing to create predefined domain patterns on free surfaces and under thin conductive top electrodes. However, the mechanisms for pressure induced polarization switching in ferroelectrics remain highly controversial, with flexoelectricity, polarization rotation and suppression, and bulk and surface electrochemical processes all being potentially relevant. Here we classify possible pressure induced switching mechanisms, perform elementary estimates, and study in depth using phase-field modelling. We show that magnitudes of these effects are remarkably close, and give rise to complex switching diagrams as a function of pressure and film thickness with non-trivial topology or switchable and non-switchable regions.