The Influence of Electric Field on the Anisotropic Dispersion of the Flexocoupling Induced Phonons and Ferrons in Van der Waals Ferrielectrics

TL;DR

This paper investigates how an external electric field affects the anisotropic dispersion of flexophonons and flexoferrons in van der Waals ferrielectrics, revealing potential phase transitions and methods to estimate flexocoupling strength.

Contribution

It provides analytical insights into electric field effects on phonon and ferron dispersion in van der Waals ferrielectrics, introducing a way to estimate flexocoupling coefficients.

Findings

Frequency of flexophonons tends to zero at nonzero wavevectors under increasing electric field.

Electric field can induce a spatially modulated incommensurate polar phase.

Method proposed for estimating flexocoupling strength from phonon frequency behavior.

Abstract

As has been shown recently, the influence of the flexoelectric coupling (shortly "flexocoupling") on the fluctuations of electric polarization and elastic strains can lead to the principal changes of the dispersion law of soft optical and acoustic phonons (shortly "flexophonons") and ferrons (shortly "flexoferrons") in van der Waals ferrielectrics. Analytical results, derived in the framework of Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire approach, revealed that the dispersion of flexophonons and flexoferrons is strongly anisotropic and should depend on the magnitude and direction of applied electric field. In this work we study the influence of applied electric field on the anisotropic dispersion of the flexophonons and flexophonons in a uniaxial van der Waals ferrielectric CuInP2S6. We reveal that the frequency of acoustic flexophonons and flexoferrons tends to zero at nonzero wavevectors under increase of applied electric field. We relate the changes with a possible appearance of a spatially modulated incommensurate polar phase induced by the flexocoupling in external field. The critical strength of flexocoupling is determined by the magnitude of electric field and direction of the wavevector. This allows us to propose a method for estimating the strength of flexocoupling in van der Waals ferrielectrics, providing that the frequency of the acoustic flexophonon is zeroing at the threshold value of the electric field. Since the flexoelectric coefficients are poorly known in van der Waals ferrielectrics, obtained analytical results can be useful for their flexo-engineering.