TY - JOUR
T1 - Metal–ferroelectric supercrystals with periodically curved metallic layers
AU - Hadjimichael, Marios
AU - Li, Yaqi
AU - Zatterin, Edoardo
AU - Chahine, Gilbert A.
AU - Conroy, Michele
AU - Moore, Kalani
AU - Connell, Eoghan N.O’
AU - Ondrejkovic, Petr
AU - Marton, Pavel
AU - Hlinka, Jiri
AU - Bangert, Ursel
AU - Leake, Steven
AU - Zubko, Pavlo
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2021.
PY - 2021/4
Y1 - 2021/4
N2 - Simultaneous manipulation of multiple boundary conditions in nanoscale heterostructures offers a versatile route to stabilizing unusual structures and emergent phases. Here, we show that a stable supercrystal phase comprising a three-dimensional ordering of nanoscale domains with tailored periodicities can be engineered in PbTiO3–SrRuO3 ferroelectric–metal superlattices. A combination of laboratory and synchrotron X-ray diffraction, piezoresponse force microscopy, scanning transmission electron microscopy and phase-field simulations reveals a complex hierarchical domain structure that forms to minimize the elastic and electrostatic energy. Large local deformations of the ferroelectric lattice are accommodated by periodic lattice modulations of the metallic SrRuO3 layers with curvatures up to 107 m−1. Our results show that multidomain ferroelectric systems can be exploited as versatile templates to induce large curvatures in correlated materials, and present a route for engineering correlated materials with modulated structural and electronic properties that can be controlled using electric fields.
AB - Simultaneous manipulation of multiple boundary conditions in nanoscale heterostructures offers a versatile route to stabilizing unusual structures and emergent phases. Here, we show that a stable supercrystal phase comprising a three-dimensional ordering of nanoscale domains with tailored periodicities can be engineered in PbTiO3–SrRuO3 ferroelectric–metal superlattices. A combination of laboratory and synchrotron X-ray diffraction, piezoresponse force microscopy, scanning transmission electron microscopy and phase-field simulations reveals a complex hierarchical domain structure that forms to minimize the elastic and electrostatic energy. Large local deformations of the ferroelectric lattice are accommodated by periodic lattice modulations of the metallic SrRuO3 layers with curvatures up to 107 m−1. Our results show that multidomain ferroelectric systems can be exploited as versatile templates to induce large curvatures in correlated materials, and present a route for engineering correlated materials with modulated structural and electronic properties that can be controlled using electric fields.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85098748458&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41563-020-00864-6
DO - 10.1038/s41563-020-00864-6
M3 - Article
C2 - 33398118
AN - SCOPUS:85098748458
SN - 1476-1122
VL - 20
SP - 495
EP - 502
JO - Nature Materials
JF - Nature Materials
IS - 4
ER -