Phys.org January 3, 2022
In ferroelectric materials, a slight shift of the atoms causes significant changes in the electric field and in the contraction or expansion of the material. An international team of researchers (Israel, USA – UCLA) succeeded in deciphering the atomic structure and electric field deployment in domain walls at the atomic scale. They corroborate the assumption that domain walls allow for the existence of a two-dimensional border between domains as a result of partial oxygen vacancy in areas that are common to two domains, thus enabling greater flexibility in the deployment of the local electric field. They succeeded in inducing an individual oxygen atom vacancy and demonstrated that this action creates opposing dipoles creating quadrupole topological defects. Engineering individual oxygen vacancies and topological solitons thus offers a platform for predetermining both atomic-scale and global functional properties of device miniaturization in metal oxides…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Graphical abstract. Credit: ACS Nano 2021, 15, 8, 13380–13388, August 6, 2021Â