Formation and rapid evolution of domain structure at phase transitions in slightly inhomogeneous ferroelectrics

We present the first analytical study of stability loss and evolution of domain structure in inhomogeneous ferroelectric samples for exactly solvable model. The model assumes a short-circuited capacitor with two regions with slightly different critical temperatures Tc1 > Tc2, where Tc1-Tc2 << Tc1, Tc2. Even a tiny inhomogeneity like 10-5 K may result in splitting the system into domains below the phase transition temperature. At T < Tc2 the domain width $a$ is proportional to (Tc1 - T)/(Tc1 - Tc2) and quickly increases with lowering temperature. The minute inhomogeneities in Tc may result from structural (growth) inhomogeneities which are always present in real samples and a similar role can be played by inevitable temperature gradients.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, discussion expanded and references added to experiments on graded ferroelectrics and ferroelectric superlattice

Effects of anisotropic elasticity in the problem of domain formation and stability of monodomain state in ferroelectric films

We study cubic ferroelectrics films that become uniaxial with a polar axis perpendicular to the film because of a misfit strain due to a substrate. The main present result is the analytical account for the elastic anisotropy as well as the anisotropy of the electrostriction. They define, in particular, an orientation of the domain boundaries and stabilizing or destabilizing effect of inhomogeneous elastic strains on the single domain state. We apply the general results to perovskite systems like BaTiO3/SrRuO3/SrTiO3 films and find that at least not far from the ferroelectric phase transition the equilibrium domain structure consists of the stripes along the cubic axes or at 45 degrees to them. We have also showed that in this system the inhomogeneous strains increase stability with regards to the small fluctuations of the metastable single domain state, which may exist not very close to the ferroelectric transition. The latter analytical result is in qualitative agreement with the numerical result by Pertsev and Kohlstedt [Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 257603 (2007)], but we show that the effect is much smaller than those authors claim. We have found also that under certain conditions on the material constants, which are not satisfied in the perovskites but are not forbidden either, a checkerboard domain structure can be realized instead of the stripe-like one and that the polarization-strain coupling decreases stability of a single domain state instead of increasing it. The single domain state is metastable at certain large thicknesses and becomes suitable for memory applications at even larger thicknesses when the lifetime of the metastable state becomes sufficiently large.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figure

Comment on 'Hysteresis, Switching, and Negative Differential Resistance in Molecular Junctions: a Polaron Model', by M. Galperin, M.A. Ratner, and A. Nitzan, Nano Lett. 5, 125 (2005)

It is shown that the ``hysteresis'' in a polaron model of electron transport through the molecule found by M.Galperin et al. [Nano Lett. 5, 125 (2005)] is an artefact of their ``mean-field'' approximation. The reason is trivial: after illegitimate replacement $\hat{n}^{2}=\hat{n}n_{0},$ where \hat{n} is the electron number operator, n_{0} the average molecular level occupation, Galperin et al. obtained non-physical dependence of a renormalized molecular energy level on the non-integer mean occupation number n_{0} (i.e. the electron self-interaction) and the resulting non-linearity of current. The exact theory of correlated polaronic transport through molecular quantum dots (MQDs) that we proposed earlier [Phys. Rev. B67, 235312 (2003)] proved that there is no hysteresis or switching in current-voltage characteristics of non-degenerate, d=1, or double degenerate, d=2, molecular bridges, contrary to the mean-field result. Switching could only appear in multiply degenerate MQDs with d>2 due to electron correlations. Most of the molecular quantum dots are in the regime of weak coupling to the electrodes addressed in our formalism.Comment: 3 pages, no figures; (v3) estimates added showing that most of the molecules are very resistive, so the actual molecular quantum dots are in the regime we study, unlike very transparent `molecules' studied by Galperin et al and other authors. In the latter case the molecules are rather `transparent' and, obviously, no current hysteresis can exis

The de Haas-van Alphen effect in canonical and grand canonical multiband Fermi liquid

A qualitatively different character of dHvA oscillations has been found in a multiband (quasi)two dimensional Fermi liquid with a fixed fermion density $n_{e}$ (canonical ensemble) compared with an open system where the chemical potential $\mu$ is kept fixed (grand canonical ensemble). A new fundamental period $P_{f}$ appears when $n_{e}$ is fixed, a damping of the Landau levels is relatively small and a background density of states is negligible. $P_{f}$ is determined by the total density rather than by the partial densities of carriers in different bands: $P_{f}=1/(2n_{e}\phi)$ for spin-split Landau levels and $P_{f}=1/(n_{e}\phi)$ in the case of spin degenerate levels where $\phi$ is the flux quantum.Comment: 9 p