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Journal of Applied Physics / Volume 111 / Issue 2 / ARTICLES / Dielectrics and Ferroelectricity

J. Appl. Phys. 111, 024105 (2012); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3677993 (13 pages)

Correlated nucleation and self-accommodating kinetic pathway of ferroelectric phase transformation

Jie E. Zhou, Tian-Le Cheng, and Yu U. Wang

Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Michigan 49931, USA

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(Received 11 July 2011; accepted 17 December 2011; published online 25 January 2012)

Mechanisms of nucleation and growth of domains during ferroelectric phase transformation are investigated by using theoretical and computational approaches. It is shown that ferroelectric phase transformation exhibits some peculiar behaviors due to strong long-range dipole-dipole-like interactions involved in the system. Incorporation of electrostatic and elastostatic energies into the classical Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire theory effectively modifies the coefficients of the polynomial free energy function and introduces extra energy barrier for ferroelectric phase transformation. It is found that independent nucleation of ferroelectric phase in the context of classical nucleation theory is prohibited, because electrostatic interaction generates an insurmountable energy barrier to isolated nucleus. Phase field modeling and computer simulation reveals that, in order to circumvent such an energy barrier, ferroelectric nucleation exhibits strong spatial correlation and self-organization behaviors from the very beginning, and ferroelectric phase transformation proceeds via spatial and temporal evolution of self-accommodating domains that provide a low-energy kinetic pathway throughout the phase transformation process. Theoretical analysis of the critical wavelength of correlated nucleation agrees with the computer simulation. Heterogeneous nucleation as induced by externally applied local electric field and subsequent polarization evolution process is also simulated to further demonstrate such self-organized pattern formation behaviors.

© 2012 American Institute of Physics

Article Outline

  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF INDEPENDENT FERROELECTRIC NUCLEATION: INSURMOUNTABLE ENERGY BARRIER
  3. COMPUTER SIMULATION OF CORRELATED NUCLEATION: SELF-ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOR
  4. CRITICAL WAVELENGTH OF CORRELATED NUCLEATION
  5. LOCAL FIELD-INDUCED HETEROGENEOUS NUCLEATION AND SELF-ORGANIZED PATTERN FORMATION
  6. CONCLUSION

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KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords

dielectric polarisation, electric domains, electrostatics, ferroelectric transitions, free energy, long-range order, nucleation, polynomials, self-assembly

PACS

  • 77.80.B-

    Phase transitions and Curie point

  • 77.22.Ej

    Polarization and depolarization

  • 77.80.Dj

    Domain structure; hysteresis

ARTICLE DATA

Digital Object Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3677993

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN

0021-8979 (print)  
1089-7550 (online)

Publisher

$abstract.society.value is a Member of CrossRef American Institute of Physics

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