Pressure-control of non-ferroelastic ferroelectric domains in ErMnO3

Abstract

Mechanical pressure controls the structural, electric, and magnetic order in solid state systems, allowing to tailor and improve their physical properties. A well-established example is ferroelastic ferroelectrics, where the coupling between pressure and the primary symmetry breaking order parameter enables hysteretic switching of the strain state and ferroelectric domain engineering. Here, we study the pressure-driven response in a non-ferroelastic ferroelectric, ErMnO3, where the classical stress-strain coupling is absent, and the domain formation is governed by creation-annihilation processes of topological defects. By annealing ErMnO3 polycrystals under variable pressures in the MPa-regime, we transform non-ferroelastic vortex-like domains into stripe-like domains. The width of the stripe-like domains is determined by the applied pressure as we confirm by three-dimensional phase field simulations, showing that pressure leads to highly oriented layer-like periodic domains. Our work demonstrates the possibility to utilize mechanical pressure for domain engineering in non-ferroelastic ferroelectrics, providing a processing-accessible lever to control their dielectric, electromechanical, and piezoelectric response.