Charged domain walls in BaTiO$_3$ crystals emerging from superdomain boundaries

TL;DR

This study investigates how electric fields induce charged domain walls in BaTiO$_3$ crystals, revealing a process involving superdomain boundaries and phase transformations that lead to stable charged domain walls with associated charge carriers.

Contribution

It provides a detailed in-situ optical analysis of the formation of charged domain walls via superdomain boundary transformation during phase coexistence in BaTiO$_3$.

Findings

Superdomain boundaries transform into charged domain walls during phase change.

Transient coexistence of cubic and ferroelectric phases observed.

Charge transport is linked to superdomain wall motion and conductivity.

Abstract

Previous experiments with BaTiO$_3$ single crystals have shown that application of the electric field in the vicinity of the ferroelectric phase transition can be used to introduce peculiar persisting ferroelectric domain walls, accompanied by the compensating charge in the form of two-dimensional electron gas. The present in-situ optical observations of such electric poling process reveal formation of a transient coexistence of the cubic and ferroelectric phases, the latter one being broken into multiple martensitic superdomains, separated by superdomain walls. It is revealed that as the transient superdomains convert into the regular ferroelectric domains, the superdomain boundaries transform into the desired charged domain walls. In order to assign the observed transient domain patterns, to understand the shapes of the observed ferrolectric precipitates and their agglomerates as well as to provide the overall interpretation of the observed domain formation process, the implications of the mechanical compatibility of the coexisting superdomain states is derived in the framework of the Wechsler-Lieberman-Read theory. The results also suggest that the transport of the compensating charge carriers towards the final charged domain wall location is directly associated with the electric conductivity and interlinked motion and growth of the superdomain walls and phase fronts.