Close-circuit domain quadruplets in BaTiO$_3$ nanorods embedded in SrTiO$_3$ film

Abstract

Cylindrical BaTiO3 nanorods embedded in (100)-oriented SrTiO3 epitaxial film in a brush-like configuration are investigated in the framework of the Ginzburg-Landau-Devonshire model. It is shown that strain compatibility at BaTiO3/SrTiO3 interfaces keeps BaTiO3 nanorods in the rhombohedral phase even at room temperature. Depolarization field at the BaTiO3/SrTiO3 interfaces is reduced by an emission of the 109-degree or 71-degree domain boundaries. In case of nanorods of about 10-80 nm diameter, the ferroelectric domains are found to form a quadruplet with a robust flux-closure arrangement of the in-plane components of the spontaneous polarization. The out-of-plane components of the polarization are either balanced or oriented up or down along the nanorod axis. Switching of the out-of-plane polarization with coercive field of about $5.10^6$ V/m occurs as a collapse of a 71-degree cylindrical domain boundary formed at the curved circumference surface of the nanorod. The remnant domain quadruplet configuration is chiral, with the $C_4$ macroscopic symmetry. More complex stable domain configurations with coexisting clockwise and anticlockwise quadruplets contain interesting arrangement of strongly curved 71-degree boundaries.