569 research outputs found
Heat Capacity in Magnetic and Electric Fields Near the Ferroelectric Transition in Tri-Glycine Sulfate
Specific-heat measurements are reported near the Curie temperature (~=
320 K) on tri-glycine sulfate. Measurements were made on crystals whose
surfaces were either non-grounded or short-circuited, and were carried out in
magnetic fields up to 9 T and electric fields up to 220 V/cm. In non-grounded
crystals we find that the shape of the specific-heat anomaly near is
thermally broadened. However, the anomaly changes to the characteristic sharp
-shape expected for a continuous transition with the application of
either a magnetic field or an electric field. In crystals whose surfaces were
short-circuited with gold, the characteristic -shape appeared in the
absence of an external field. This effect enabled a determination of the
critical exponents above and below , and may be understood on the basis
that the surface charge originating from the pyroelectric coefficient, ,
behaves as if shorted by external magnetic or electric fields.Comment: 4 Pages, 4 Figures. To Appear in Applied Physics Letters_ January
200
Current-Controlled Negative Differential Resistance due to Joule Heating in TiO2
We show that Joule heating causes current-controlled negative differential
resistance (CC-NDR) in TiO2 by constructing an analytical model of the
voltage-current V(I) characteristic based on polaronic transport for Ohm's Law
and Newton's Law of Cooling, and fitting this model to experimental data. This
threshold switching is the 'soft breakdown' observed during electroforming of
TiO2 and other transition-metal-oxide based memristors, as well as a precursor
to 'ON' or 'SET' switching of unipolar memristors from their high to their low
resistance states. The shape of the V(I) curve is a sensitive indicator of the
nature of the polaronic conduction.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure
Thermodynamics of Ferrotoroidic Materials: Toroidocaloric Effect
The three primary ferroics, namely ferromagnets, ferroelectrics and
ferroelastics exhibit corresponding large (or even giant)
magnetocaloric,electrocaloric and elastocaloric effects when a phase transition
is induced by the application of an appropriate external field. Recently the
suite of primary ferroics has been extended to include ferrotoroidic materials
in which there is an ordering of toroidic moments in the form of magnetic
vortex-like structures, examples being LiCo(PO_4)_3 and Ba_2CoGe_2O_7. In the
present work we formulate the thermodynamics of ferrotoroidic materials. Within
a Landau free energy framework we calculate the toroidocaloric effect by
quantifying isothermal entropy change (or adiabatic temperature change) in the
presence of an applied toroidic field when usual magnetization and polarization
may also be present simultaneously. We also obtain a nonlinear
Clausius-Clapeyron relation for phase coexistence.Comment: 10 pages, 5 Figure
Bichiral structure of feroelectric domain wall driven by flexoelectricity
The influence of flexoelectric coupling on the internal structure of neutral
domain walls in tetragonal phase of perovskite ferroelectrics is studied. The
effect is shown to lower the symmetry of 180-degree walls which are oblique
with respect to the cubic crystallographic axes, while {100} and {110} walls
stay "untouched". Being of the Ising type in the absence of the flexoelectric
interaction, the oblique domain walls acquire a new polarization component with
a structure qualitatively different from the classical Bloch-wall structure. In
contrast to the Bloch-type walls, where the polarization vector draws a helix
on passing from one domain to the other, in the flexoeffect-affected wall, the
polarization rotates in opposite directions on the two sides of the wall and
passes through zero in its center. Since the resulting polarization profile is
invariant upon inversion with respect to the wall center it does not brake the
wall symmetry in contrast to the classical Bloch-type walls. The flexoelectric
coupling lower the domain wall energy and gives rise to its additional
anisotropy that is comparable to that conditioned by the elastic anisotropy.
The atomic orderof- magnitude estimates shows that the new polarization
component P2 may be comparable with spontaneous polarization Ps, thus
suggesting that, in general, the flexoelectric coupling should be mandatory
included in domain wall simulations in ferroelectrics. Calculations performed
for barium titanate yields the maximal value of the P2, which is much smaller
than that of the spontaneous polarization. This smallness is attributed to an
anomalously small value of a component of the "strain-polarization"
elecrostictive tensor in this material
Universal Properties of Ferroelectric Domains
Basing on Ginzburg-Landau approach we generalize the Kittel theory and derive
the interpolation formula for the temperature evolution of a multi-domain
polarization profile P(x,z). We resolve the long-standing problem of the
near-surface polarization behavior in ferroelectric domains and demonstrate the
polarization vanishing instead of usually assumed fractal domain branching. We
propose an effective scaling approach to compare the properties of different
domain-containing ferroelectric plates and films.Comment: Phys. Rev. Lett. to be publishe
Equilibrium and Stability of Polarization in Ultrathin Ferroelectric Films with Ionic Surface Compensation
Thermodynamic theory is developed for the ferroelectric phase transition of
an ultrathin film in equilibrium with a chemical environment that supplies
ionic species to compensate its surface. Equations of state and free energy
expressions are developed based on Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire theory, using
electrochemical equilibria to provide ionic compensation boundary conditions.
Calculations are presented for a monodomain PbTiO (001) film coherently
strained to SrTiO with its exposed surface and its electronically
conducting bottom electrode in equilibrium with a controlled oxygen partial
pressure. The stability and metastability boundaries of phases of different
polarization are determined as a function of temperature, oxygen partial
pressure, and film thickness. Phase diagrams showing polarization and internal
electric field are presented. At temperatures below a thickness-dependent Curie
point, high or low oxygen partial pressure stabilizes positive or negative
polarization, respectively. Results are compared to the standard cases of
electronic compensation controlled by either an applied voltage or charge
across two electrodes. Ionic surface compensation through chemical equilibrium
with an environment introduces new features into the phase diagram. In
ultrathin films, a stable non-polar phase can occur between the positive and
negative polar phases when varying the external chemical potential at fixed
temperature, under conditions where charged surface species are not present in
sufficient concentration to stabilize a polar phase.Comment: 53 pages, 24 figure
Domain Dynamics in Piezoresponse Force Microscopy: Quantitative Deconvolution and Hysteresis Loop Fine Structure
Domain dynamics in the Piezoresponse Force Spectroscopy (PFS) experiment is
studied using the combination of local hysteresis loop acquisition with
simultaneous domain imaging. The analytical theory for PFS signal from domain
of arbitrary cross-section is developed and used for the analysis of
experimental data on Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 polycrystalline films. The results suggest
formation of oblate domain at early stage of the domain nucleation and growth,
consistent with efficient screening of depolarization field within the
material. The fine structure of the hysteresis loop is shown to be related to
the observed jumps in the domain geometry during domain wall propagation
(nanoscale Barkhausen jumps), indicative of strong domain-defect interactions.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, 2 Appendices, to be submmited to Appl. Phys.
Let
Quantum ferroelectric instabilities in superconducting SrTiO3
We examine the effects of strain and cation substitution on the superconducting phase of polar semiconductors near a ferroelectric quantum phase transition with a
model that combines a strong coupling theory of superconductors
with a standard microscopic framework for displacive polar modes coupled to strain degrees of freedom.
Our calculations reveal that the superconducting transition temperature Tc is enhanced by proximity to the ferroelectric instability from the disordered side, while it is
generally suppressed in the ordered phase due to its increase in dielectric stiffness and a reduction
of critical fluctuations from dipolar induced anisotropies.
The condensation of the pairing phonon excitations generates a kink in Tc
at a charge density that is generally lower than that of the quantum critical point (QCP) and where both superconducting and ferroelectric orders set in.
We apply our model to SrTiO_3 and find that the antiadiabatic limit
places the kink nearly at its QCP.
As the QCP is pushed to higher charge densities with either tuning parameter,
we find that the dome narrows and sharpens.
Our model is in qualitative and fair quantitative agreement
with the recent observation of
overlapping ferroelectric-like
and superconducting instabilities
in n-doped Sr_(1-x)Ca_xTiO_3
and strain tuning of Tc in n-doped SrTiO_3.
We compare our results to previous models invoking order-disorder lattice dynamics to
describe the pairing excitations.Universidad de Costa Rica/[816-B7-601]/UCR/Costa RicaUCR::VicerrectorĂa de InvestigaciĂłn::Unidades de InvestigaciĂłn::Ciencias Básicas::Centro de InvestigaciĂłn en Ciencia e IngenierĂa de Materiales (CICIMA
Domain enhanced interlayer coupling in ferroelectric/paraelectric superlattices
We investigate the ferroelectric phase transition and domain formation in a
periodic superlattice consisting of alternate ferroelectric (FE) and
paraelectric (PE) layers of nanometric thickness. We find that the polarization
domains formed in the different FE layers can interact with each other via the
PE layers. By coupling the electrostatic equations with those obtained by
minimizing the Ginzburg-Landau functional we calculate the critical temperature
of transition Tc as a function of the FE/PE superlattice wavelength and
quantitatively explain the recent experimental observation of a thickness
dependence of the ferroelectric transition temperature in KTaO3/KNbO3
strained-layer superlattices.Comment: Latest version as was published in PR
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