Electric-Field-Stabilized Ferroelastic Domain Walls in Monoclinic Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ Crystals

Abstract

We present peculiar ferroelastic domain walls stabilized by applying an electric field along the c axis in monoclinic Bi4Ti3O12 crystals, which has not been reported. Piezoelectric force microscope investigations taking into account the two spontaneous polarization (Ps) components along the a (Ps(a)) and c (Ps(c)) axes revealed that these ferroelastic domain walls are established after the rearrangement of non-ferroelastic 180° domains accompanied by Ps(c) switching induced by the electric-field application along the c axis. The ferroelastic domain walls raise the possibility of achieving material design using domain engineering for piezoelectric and optical applications of Bi4Ti3O12.