Observation of nanoscale 180 stripe domains

8 In-Situ Synchrotron X-ray Studies of Processing and Physics of Ferroelectric Thin Films 

100 K below Tc, the first-order satellites shift to smaller Ko, and peaks appear at the higher, odd-order satellite positions AK = nK0(n = 3,5.). Finally, at about 400 K below Tc, the satellites disappear. This indicates that some alternative mechanism for neutralizing the depolarizing field is operative at low temperature. At a given temperature the positions and intensities of the satellites do not change with time, and are very reproducible provided that T is lowered monotonically from above Tc. 

as observed. At lower T, non-linearity in the free energy functional is expected to favor sharp domain walls [21], The transition to the monodomain ferroelectric phase F1 has been predicted by treating the ferroelectric as a semiconductor, in which carriers can be created by the field effect [16]. This transition can be calculated to occur at Tc - T = 325 K for d = 10 nm [4], in qualitative agreement with our observations. The rich phase diagram we have observed in this simple system makes it an excellent test case for more quantitative development of these concepts. 

We would like to acknowledge dedicated and capable experimental assistance from L. Thompson, G. R. Bai, M. E. M. Aanerud, and the bessrc beamline staff. Work supported by the US Department of Energy, bes-dms under contract W-31-109-eng-38, and the State of Illinois under heca. 

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Streiffer SK, Eastman JA, Fong DD, Thompson C, Munkhohn A, Ramana Murty MV, Auciello O, Bai GR, Stephenson GB (2002) Observation of nanoscale 180° stripe domains in ferroelectric PbTi03 thin films. Phys Rev Lett 89 067601... 

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