English

Finite size effects in ferroelectric-semiconductor thin films under open-circuited electric boundary conditions

Materials Science 2015-06-19 v2 Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics

Abstract

General features of finite size effects in the ferroelectric-semiconductor film under open-circuited electric boundary conditions are analyzed using Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire theory and continuum media electrostatics. The temperature dependence of the film critical thickness, spontaneous polarization and depolarization field profiles of the open-circuited films are found to be significantly different compared to the short-circuited ones. In particular, we predict the re-entrant type transition boundary between the mono-domain and poly-domain ferroelectric states due to reduced internal screening efficiency and analyzed possible experimental scenarios created by this mechanism. This analysis is relevant to the behavior of the free-standing ferroelectric films and scanning-probe microscopy based experiments on free ferroelectric surfaces.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1404.6069,
  title  = {Finite size effects in ferroelectric-semiconductor thin films under open-circuited electric boundary conditions},
  author = {Eugene A. Eliseev and Sergei V. Kalinin and Anna N. Morozovska},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1404.6069},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

28 pages, 5 figures, 1 table and supplementary material Accepted to the Journal of Applied Physics