Polarization Switching Dynamics Governed by Thermodynamic Nucleation Process in Ultrathin Ferroelectric Films

TL;DR

This paper investigates how thermodynamic nucleation governs polarization switching in ultrathin ferroelectric films, revealing that depolarization fields lower the energy barrier, leading to power-law decay behaviors and challenging traditional views of nucleation barriers.

Contribution

It demonstrates that depolarization fields significantly reduce nucleation energy barriers in ultrathin ferroelectric films, explaining polarization decay and addressing the Landauer's paradox.

Findings

Depolarization fields lower nucleation energy barriers to thermal levels.

Power-law polarization decay correlates with nucleation energy barriers.

The Landauer's paradox is not critical in ultrathin films.

Abstract

A long standing problem of domain switching process - how domains nucleate - is examined in ultrathin ferroelectric films. We demonstrate that the large depolarization fields in ultrathin films could significantly lower the nucleation energy barrier (U*) to a level comparable to thermal energy (kBT), resulting in power-law like polarization decay behaviors. The "Landauer's paradox": U* is thermally insurmountable is not a critical issue in the polarization switching of ultrathin ferroelectric films. We empirically find a universal relation between the polarization decay behavior and U*/kBT.