1201.5654 (Anna N. Morozovska et al.)

Mesoscopic mechanism of the domain wall interaction with elastic defects
in ferroelectrics    [PDF]

Anna N. Morozovska, Eugene A. Eliseev, G. S. Svechnikov, Sergei V. Kalinin

The role of elastic defects on the kinetics of 180-degree uncharged
ferroelectric domain wall motion is explored using continuum time-dependent LGD
equation with elastic dipole coupling. In one dimensional case, ripples, steps
and oscillations of the domain wall velocity appear due to the wall-defect
interactions. While the defects do not affect the limiting-wall velocity vs.
field dependence, they result in the minimal threshold field required to
activate the wall motions. The analytical expressions for the threshold field
are derived and the latter is shown to be much smaller than the thermodynamic
coercive field. The threshold field is linearly proportional to the
concentration of defects and non-monotonically depends on the average distance
between them. The obtained results provide the insight into the mesoscopic
mechanism of the domain wall pinning by elastic defects in ferroelectrics.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.5654