April 7 - 11, 2025
Seattle, Washington
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2025 MRS Spring Meeting & Exhibit
EL08.09.03

Engineering and Understanding the Dynamics of Ferroelectric Domain Walls and Boundaries

When and Where

Apr 10, 2025
2:30pm - 3:00pm
Summit, Level 4, Room 433

Presenter(s)

Co-Author(s)

Neus Domingo Marimon1,Marti Checa1,Shivarajan Raghuraman1,Bharat Pant2,Pravin Kavle3,4,Arvind Dasgupta3,4,Rama Vasudevan1,Liam Collins1,Lane Martin5,Ye Cao2,Kyle Kelley1,Stephen Jesse1

Oak Ridge National Laboratory1,University of Texas at Arlington2,University of California, Berkeley3,Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory4,Rice University5

Abstract

Neus Domingo Marimon1,Marti Checa1,Shivarajan Raghuraman1,Bharat Pant2,Pravin Kavle3,4,Arvind Dasgupta3,4,Rama Vasudevan1,Liam Collins1,Lane Martin5,Ye Cao2,Kyle Kelley1,Stephen Jesse1

Oak Ridge National Laboratory1,University of Texas at Arlington2,University of California, Berkeley3,Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory4,Rice University5
The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for the United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).

One of the most attractive topics of ferroic materials is the creation and study of topological structures, not only domain walls but also domain boundaries and more complex ones such as flux closure structures or skyrmions. Advanced Piezoresponse Force Microscopy (PFM) tools developed at CNMS have emerged as a powerful tool to study and engineer these domain walls, providing unprecedented insights into their nanoscale dynamics, switching behavior, and interaction with external stimuli.
In this talk, we present recent advancements in the application of PFM techniques for the high-resolution exploration of ferroelectric domain walls and its dynamics. We highlight how PFM enables the study of domain wall dynamics under electric fields, mechanical stress, and thermal conditions. We also discuss emerging strategies to control and stabilize topologically complex domain structures, such as vortex -like configurations, through precise engineering of interfaces. Special attention is given to the engineering of domain wall structures and boundary conditions in ferroelectric thin films and heterostructures through customized ferrolithography tools. The interplay between these external factors and the intrinsic material properties leads to novel switching mechanisms, and changes in domain wall/boundary structure. These findings have far-reaching implications for next-generation memory devices, actuators, and energy-efficient electronics.
This work was supported by Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS), which is a US Department of Energy, Office of Science User Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Keywords

ferroelectricity | scanning probe microscopy (SPM)

Symposium Organizers

Morgan Trassin, ETH Zurich
John Heron, University of Michigan
Dennis Meier, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Michele Conroy, Imperial College London

Session Chairs

Roger Proksch

In this Session