From Ferroionic Instability to Domain Patterns at an Exposed Surfaces of Multiaxial Ferroelectrics
Abstract
We analyze the formation of domain structures in multiaxial ferroelectrics with an open, electrochemically compensated surface. The model combines vector polarization, surface electrochemistry, electrostatics, compatible strain, and competitive adsorption on common sites. We construct homogeneous phase maps and analyze polarization instabilities, first assuming perturbations that are uniform through the film thickness and then allowing depth-dependent polarization profiles. Nonlinear continuation follows the growth of these modulations into developed domains. Optimization of their period and tests of their stability establish how the initial instability wavelength relates to the preferred spacing of an established domain structure. We also consider surface ordering above a stable, weakly anisotropic bulk as a constitutive limit relevant to ferroelectric relaxors, providing insight into possible origins of their periodic surface modulations. Surface energies with the same quadratic terms can produce the same initial instability but favor different developed states, including periodic domains and uniform in-plane polarization. This analysis provides a procedure for connecting the initial development of ferroelectric modulations to amplitude selection, wavelength adjustment, and the subsequent evolution of the resulting domain structures.
Related
- 'Dancing' two-dimensional patterns in nematics above the flexoelectric instability threshold
- Intrinsic switching leads to oxygen diffusion and breakdown in hafnia ferroelectrics
- Anomalous Pressure-Enhanced Polarization in Sliding Ferroelectrics
- Revealing tilt-driven structural heterogeneity in hybrid improper ferroelectrics by spatially-resolved crystallography
- Three Million Years Opposite State Data Retention in Partially Switched Wurtzite Ferroelectrics
BibTeX
@misc{kalinin2026from,
title = {{From Ferroionic Instability to Domain Patterns at an Exposed Surfaces of Multiaxial Ferroelectrics}},
author = {Sergei V. Kalinin},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.22366},
eprint = {2609.22366},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.22366},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - From Ferroionic Instability to Domain Patterns at an Exposed Surfaces of Multiaxial Ferroelectrics
AU - Sergei V. Kalinin
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/17
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.22366
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.22366
AB - We analyze the formation of domain structures in multiaxial ferroelectrics with an open, electrochemically compensated surface. The model combines vector polarization, surface electrochemistry, electrostatics, compatible strain, and competitive adsorption on common sites. We construct homogeneous phase maps and analyze polarization instabilities, first assuming perturbations that are uniform through the film thickness and then allowing depth-dependent polarization profiles. Nonlinear continuation follows the growth of these modulations into developed domains. Optimization of their period and tests of their stability establish how the initial instability wavelength relates to the preferred spacing of an established domain structure. We also consider surface ordering above a stable, weakly anisotropic bulk as a constitutive limit relevant to ferroelectric relaxors, providing insight into possible origins of their periodic surface modulations. Surface energies with the same quadratic terms can produce the same initial instability but favor different developed states, including periodic domains and uniform in-plane polarization. This analysis provides a procedure for connecting the initial development of ferroelectric modulations to amplitude selection, wavelength adjustment, and the subsequent evolution of the resulting domain structures.
ER -