Uniaxial Strain-Driven Ferroelastic Domain Tuning in LaAlO 3.
8 affiliations
- 1Institut für Angewandte Physik, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
- 2Würzburg-Dresden Cluster of Excellence (EXC2147) ctd.qmat - Complexity, Topology, and Dynamics in Quantum Matter, Dresden, Germany.
- 3Institute of Solid State and Materials Physics, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
- 4Institut für Theoretische Physik and Center for Materials Research (LaMa/ZfM), Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Gießen, Germany.
- 5Department of Quantum Matter Physics (DQMP), University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
- 6Physics Department, ETH Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland.
- 7Institute of Applied Physics, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
- 8Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS Center Nanoelectronic Technologies (CNT), Dresden, Germany.
Abstract
Multiferroic domain walls in functional oxides exhibit properties distinct from the bulk and are increasingly exploited as active elements in nanoelectronic and photonic devices. Deterministic tuning of domain populations has typically remained limited to local solutions, or removal with temperature. Here, the manipulation of ferroelastic domain structure, and removal of the twin walls between them in single-crystal LaAlO3 using in situ uniaxial strain is demonstrated. Combining atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Raman spectroscopy with first-principles calculations, the microscopic evolution of the twin domain population is mapped through a strain-driven transition from the rhombohedral R3¯c ground state toward the predicted orthorhombic Fmmm phase. Applied strains below 0.5% produce pronounced surface flattening and large-scale domain reorganization, establishing uniaxial strain as a technically accessible tuning parameter for ferroelastic domain engineering. These results open a route to active alterations of domain architectures in LaAlO3 -based heterostructures, with implications for epitaxial film properties, nanoscale phonon-polariton optics, and ultrafast lattice control.
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BibTeX
@article{roeper2026uniaxial,
title = {{Uniaxial Strain-Driven Ferroelastic Domain Tuning in LaAlO 3.}},
author = {Matthias Roeper and Robin Buschbeck and Jakob Wetzel and Tobias Ritschel and Anna-Lena Hofmann and Vladyslav Kovtunovych and Mike N Pionteck and Javier Taboada-Gutiérrez and Alexey B Kuzmenko and Martina Basini and Vivek Unikandanunni and Iuliia Kiseleva and Jochen Geck and Susanne C Kehr and Maximilian Lederer and Simone Sanna and Lukas M Eng and Samuel D Seddon},
journal = {Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany)},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1002/advs.78098},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42875737},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Uniaxial Strain-Driven Ferroelastic Domain Tuning in LaAlO 3.
AU - Matthias Roeper
AU - Robin Buschbeck
AU - Jakob Wetzel
AU - Tobias Ritschel
AU - Anna-Lena Hofmann
AU - Vladyslav Kovtunovych
AU - Mike N Pionteck
AU - Javier Taboada-Gutiérrez
AU - Alexey B Kuzmenko
AU - Martina Basini
AU - Vivek Unikandanunni
AU - Iuliia Kiseleva
AU - Jochen Geck
AU - Susanne C Kehr
AU - Maximilian Lederer
AU - Simone Sanna
AU - Lukas M Eng
AU - Samuel D Seddon
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/14
JO - Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany)
DO - 10.1002/advs.78098
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42875737
AB - Multiferroic domain walls in functional oxides exhibit properties distinct from the bulk and are increasingly exploited as active elements in nanoelectronic and photonic devices. Deterministic tuning of domain populations has typically remained limited to local solutions, or removal with temperature. Here, the manipulation of ferroelastic domain structure, and removal of the twin walls between them in single-crystal LaAlO3 using in situ uniaxial strain is demonstrated. Combining atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Raman spectroscopy with first-principles calculations, the microscopic evolution of the twin domain population is mapped through a strain-driven transition from the rhombohedral R3¯c ground state toward the predicted orthorhombic Fmmm phase. Applied strains below 0.5% produce pronounced surface flattening and large-scale domain reorganization, establishing uniaxial strain as a technically accessible tuning parameter for ferroelastic domain engineering. These results open a route to active alterations of domain architectures in LaAlO3 -based heterostructures, with implications for epitaxial film properties, nanoscale phonon-polariton optics, and ultrafast lattice control.
SN - 2198-3844
ER -