Chemistry Publications and Other Works

Source Publication (e.g., journal title)

Nature Communications

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2019

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13066-9

Abstract

Ferroic materials are well known to exhibit heterogeneity in the form of domain walls. Understanding the properties of these boundaries is crucial for controlling functionality with external stimuli and for realizing their potential for ultra-low power memory and logic devices as well as novel computing architectures. In this work, we employ synchrotron-based near- field infrared nano-spectroscopy to reveal the vibrational properties of ferroelastic (90 ferroelectric) domain walls in the hybrid improper ferroelectric Ca3 Ti2 O7 . By locally mapping the Ti-O stretching and Ti-O-Ti bending modes, we reveal how structural order parameters rotate across a wall. Thus, we link observed near-field amplitude changes to underlying structural modulations and test ferroelectric switching models against real space measurements of local structure. This initiative opens the door to broadband infrared nano- imaging of heterogeneity in ferroics.

Submission Type

Publisher's Version

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