Zahn Manuel, Müller Aaron Merlin, Kelley Kyle P, Neumayer Sabine, Kalinin Sergei V, Kézsmarki István, Fiebig Manfred, Lottermoser Thomas, Domingo Neus, Meier Dennis, Schultheiß Jan
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway.
Experimental Physics V, Center for Electronic Correlations and Magnetism, University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany.
Nat Commun. 2025 Feb 19;16(1):1781. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-57062-8.
Reversible ferroelectric domain wall movements beyond the 10 nm range associated with Rayleigh behavior are usually restricted to specific defect-engineered systems. Here, we demonstrate that such long-range movements naturally occur in the improper ferroelectric ErMnO during electric-field-cycling. We study the electric-field-driven motion of domain walls, showing that they readily return to their initial position after having traveled distances exceeding 250 nm. By applying switching spectroscopy band-excitation piezoresponse force microscopy, we track the domain wall movement with nanometric spatial precision and analyze the local switching behavior. Phase field simulations show that the reversible long-range motion is intrinsic to the hexagonal manganites, linking it to their improper ferroelectricity and topologically protected structural vortex lines, which serve as anchor point for the ferroelectric domain walls. Our results give new insight into the local dynamics of domain walls in improper ferroelectrics and demonstrate the possibility to reversibly displace domain walls over much larger distances than commonly expected for ferroelectric systems in their pristine state, ensuring predictable device behavior for applications such as tunable capacitors or sensors.
与瑞利行为相关的、超出10纳米范围的可逆铁电畴壁运动通常仅限于特定的缺陷工程系统。在此，我们证明，在电场循环过程中，这种长程运动在非本征铁电体ErMnO中自然发生。我们研究了电场驱动的畴壁运动，结果表明，在行进超过250纳米的距离后，它们很容易回到初始位置。通过应用开关光谱带激发压电响应力显微镜，我们以纳米级空间精度跟踪畴壁运动，并分析局部开关行为。相场模拟表明，可逆长程运动是六方锰氧化物的固有特性，将其与非本征铁电性和拓扑保护的结构涡旋线联系起来，这些涡旋线作为铁电畴壁的锚点。我们的结果为非本征铁电体中畴壁的局部动力学提供了新的见解，并证明了在比铁电系统原始状态通常预期的大得多的距离上可逆地移动畴壁的可能性，确保了诸如可调谐电容器或传感器等应用中可预测的器件行为。
