Buckling Effect Induced Abnormal Out of Plane Domain Stripe in BiFeO₃ Single-Crystalline Thin Film Investigated by Piezoresponse Force Microscopy

Abstract

We demonstrated a BiFeO₃ single-crystalline thin film, which was deposited on a (100) SrTiO₃ single-crystal substrate by using a pulse laser deposition technology. The as-grown domain structure was investigated by piezoresponse force microscopy, which possesses two preferential downward <111> orientations in an angle of 71°. We have found that the abnormal out of plane stripe domain patterns match with the in-plane domains. According to schematic diagrams and quantitative equations, we explained that the coupling between the out of plane and in-plane domains arise from the buckling effect, which can open a new way to reconstruct the real polarization vectors.

Keywords:

• Ferroelectrics
• BFO
• buckling effect
• PFM
• domain stripe

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61176121 and 61225020) and the Program for Professor of Special Appointment (Eastern Scholar) at Shanghai.