title: Néel-like domain walls in ferroelectric Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 single crystals.
abstract: In contrast to the flexible rotation of magnetization direction in ferromagnets, the spontaneous polarization in ferroelectric materials is highly confined along the symmetry-allowed directions. Accordingly, chirality at ferroelectric domain walls was treated only at the theoretical level and its real appearance is still a mystery. Here we report a Néel-like domain wall imaged by atom-resolved transmission electron microscopy in Ti-rich ferroelectric Pb(Zr1-xTix)O3 crystals, where nanometre-scale monoclinic order coexists with the tetragonal order. The formation of such domain walls is interpreted in the light of polarization discontinuity and clamping effects at phase boundaries between the nesting domains. Phase-field simulation confirms that the coexistence of both phases as encountered near the morphotropic phase boundary promotes the polarization to rotate in a continuous manner. Our results provide a further insight into the complex domain configuration in ferroelectrics, and establish a foundation towards exploring chiral domain walls in ferroelectrics.
authors.affiliation: Ceramics Laboratory, EPFL-Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne 1015, Switzerland.|Peter Grünberg Institute and Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52425 Jülich, Germany.
authors.forename: Xian-Kui
authors.initials: XK
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Peter Grünberg Institute and Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52425 Jülich, Germany.|The School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China.
authors.forename: Chun-Lin
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.affiliation: Ceramics Laboratory, EPFL-Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne 1015, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Tomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sluka
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and 4D LABS, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5A 1S6.
authors.forename: Bi-Xia
authors.initials: BX
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and 4D LABS, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5A 1S6.|Electronic Materials Research Laboratory, Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education and International Center for Dielectric Research, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China.
authors.forename: Zuo-Guang
authors.initials: ZG
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.affiliation: Ceramics Laboratory, EPFL-Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne 1015, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Nava
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Setter