PNNL

Abstract

It has been well established that defects can act as pinning centers for ferroelectric domain wall motion. This pinning effect potentially alters switching properties and coercivity of ferroelectrics. In this study, dislocation loops were purposefully introduced into barium titanate single crystals via electron beam irradiation. In-situ biasing transmission electron microscopy investigation showed that the motion of ferroelectric domain walls was dramatically suppressed by these localized defects because of the local strain field induced by the defects. The pinning effect can be further enhanced by multiple domain walls embedded with defect arrays. These results provide evidence of the possibility of manipulating coercivity of ferroelectrics via defect engineering.