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Observation of nanoscale 180 degrees stripe domains in ferroelectric PbTiO3 thin films
S K Streiffer1, J A Eastman, D D Fong
1Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Illinois 60439, USA. streiffer@anl.gov
Physical Review Letters
|August 23, 2002
Abstract:
We report the observation of periodic 180 degrees stripe domains below the ferroelectric transition in thin films. Epitaxial PbTiO3 films of thickness d=1.6 to 42 nm on SrTiO3 substrates were studied using x-ray scattering. Upon cooling below T(C), satellites appeared around Bragg peaks indicating the presence of 180 degrees stripe domains of period Lambda=3.7 to 24 nm. The dependence of Lambda on d agrees well with theory including epitaxial strain effects, while the suppression of T(C) for thinner films is significantly larger than that expected solely from stripe domains.