Stability of polarisation vortex in ferroelectric nanofilm under stress or curled electric field

ABSTRACT

Polarisation vortex structures in ferroelectric materials are being considered as a promising alternative to current memory cells due to the merit of high storage density. However, ferroelectric storage devices would inevitably be affected by external loads. When an applied mechanical or electrical load reaches its critical value, it could cause the loss of stored data because the polarisation vortex loses the stability. Some phase field simulations were conducted to investigate the stability of the polarisation vortex under different stresses or curled electric fields. The results show that the polarisation vortex structure has the strongest resistance to a tensile stress, followed by a compressive stress, but the weakest to a curled electric field. The temperature sensitivity of the polarisation vortex structure to resist different loads is also significantly different. The temperature sensitivity is the strongest for the curled electric field, followed by for the tensile stress, but the weakest for the compressive stress. This work would be helpful for tuning polarisation vortex and designing ferroelectric storage devices in specific working environments.

KEYWORDS:

• Stability
• polarisation vortex
• PTO nanofilm
• phase field simulations

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant numbers: 11572135 and 11772137).