title: Giant flexoelectric effect in ferroelectric epitaxial thin films.
abstract: We report on nanoscale strain gradients in ferroelectric HoMnO(3) epitaxial thin films, resulting in a giant flexoelectric effect. Using grazing-incidence in-plane x-ray diffraction, we measured strain gradients in the films, which were 6 or 7 orders of magnitude larger than typical values reported for bulk oxides. The combination of transmission electron microscopy, electrical measurements, and electrostatic calculations showed that flexoelectricity provides a means of tuning the physical properties of ferroelectric epitaxial thin films, such as domain configurations and hysteresis curves.
authors.affiliation: ReCFI, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-747, Korea.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.forename: S Y
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Jang
authors.forename: J-G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.forename: J-S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.forename: T W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Noh