Ferroelectric thin films under epitaxial strain exhibit a variety of vortex-like topological polarization textures. To analyze them, we build on the Ginzburg-Landau-Devonshire framework and extend the previously introduced soft-domain approach. This formulation provides a compact variational theoretical description of polarization morphologies in strained PbTiO3 films. It yields phase diagrams as a function of temperature, strain, and thickness, and clarifies the morphological structure of emergent topological states. The method is computationally efficient and offers practical guidance for experimental studies of ferroelectric nanostructures.
@article{arxiv.2509.06508,
title = {Morphology of Polarization States in Strained Ferroelectric Films},
author = {Léo Boron and Anaïs Sené and Yuri Tikhonov and Anna Razumnaya and Igor Lukyanchuk and Svitlana Kondovych},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.06508},
year = {2025}
}