Domain Structures In Ferroelectrics Ferroelastics And Other Ferroic Materials

The book examines domain structuring due to the loss of the initial phase stability in materials of finite size. It also covers aspects such as the behaviour of domain boundaries during their interaction with lattice defects, their structure in real ferroelectrically ordered materials, the effect of the lattice potential relief on their movement, and the flexural and translational components of their dynamics in ferroelectric crystals. The contribution of the domain boundaries to the dielectric properties of ferroelectrics and elastic properties of ferroelectric elastomers is evaluated.

At present, the marketplace for professionals, researchers, and graduate students in solid-state physics and materials science lacks a book that presents a comprehensive discussion of ferroelectrics and related materials in a form that is suitable for experimentalists and engineers. This book proposes to present a wide coverage of domain-related issues concerning these materials. This coverage includes selected theoretical topics (which are covered in the existing literature) in addition to a plethora of experimental data which occupies over half of the book. The book presents experimental findings and theoretical understanding of ferroic (non-magnetic) domains developed during the past 60 years. It addresses the situation by looking specifically at bulk crystals and thin films, with a particular focus on recently-developed microelectronic applications and methods for observations of domains with techniques such as scanning force microscopy, polarized light microscopy, scanning optical microscopy, electron microscopy, and surface decorating techniques. "Domains in Ferroic Crystals and Thin Films" covers a large area of material properties and effects connected with static and dynamic properties of domains, which are extremely relevant to materials referred to as ferroics. In other textbooks on solid state physics, one large group of ferroics is customarily covered: those in which magnetic properties play a dominant role. Numerous books are specifically devoted to magnetic ferroics and cover a wide spectrum of magnetic domain phenomena. In contrast, "Domains in Ferroic Crystals and Thin Films" concentrates on domain-related phenomena in nonmagnetic ferroics. These materials are still inadequately represented in solid state physics textbooks and monographs.

This book provides a state-of-the art overview of a highly interesting emerging research field in solid state physics/nanomaterials science, topological structures in ferroic materials. Topological structures in ferroic materials have received strongly increasing attention in the last few years. Such structures include domain walls, skyrmions and vortices, which can form in ferroelectric, magnetic, ferroelastic or multiferroic materials. These topological structures can have completely different properties from the bulk material they form in. They also can be controlled by external fields (electrical, magnetic, strain) or currents, which makes them interesting from a fundamental research point of view as well as for potential novel nanomaterials applications. To provide a comprehensive overview, international leading researches in these fields contributed review-like chapters about their own work and the work of other researchers to provide a current view of this highly interesting topic.

Ferroic materials are important, not only because of the improved understanding of condensed matter, but also because of their present and potential device applications. This book presents a unified description of ferroic materials at an introductory level, with the unifying factor being the occurrence of nondisruptive phase transitions in crystals that alter point-group symmetry. The book also aims to further systemitize the subject of ferroic materials, employing some formal, carefully worded, definitions and classification schemes. The basic physical principles leading to the wide-ranging applications of ferroic materials are also explained, while placing extra emphasis on the utilitarian role of symmetry in materials science.