Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Ferroelectric domain breakdown.

Michel Molotskii1, Alex Agronin, Pavel Urenski

  • 1The Wolfson Materials Research Center, Tel Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv, 69978, Israel.

Physical Review Letters
|April 12, 2003
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Selective Sensing of Hydrogen and Ammonia Using a Single CMOS-Compatible Sensor and Transfer Learning Methods.

ACS sensors·2026
Same author

Hidden imaging in thin polymer films with embedded fluorescent peptide nanodots.

Optics express·2024
Same author

Selective Sensing of Volatile Organic Compounds Using an Electrostatically Formed Nanowire Sensor Based on Automatic Machine Learning.

ACS sensors·2023
Same author

Amplified spontaneous emission and gain in highly concentrated Rhodamine-doped peptide derivative.

Scientific reports·2021
Same author

Schottky Barrier Height and Image Force Lowering in Monolayer MoS<sub>2</sub> Field Effect Transistors.

Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland)·2020
Same author

Gap state distribution and Fermi level pinning in monolayer to multilayer MoS<sub>2</sub> field effect transistors.

Nanoscale·2020
Same journal

Erratum: Spectroscopy and Ground-State Transfer of Ultracold Bosonic ^{39}K^{133}Cs Molecules [Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 203401 (2025)].

Physical review letters·2026
Same journal

Erratum: Lifetime of the ^{2}F_{7/2} Level in Yb^{+} for Spontaneous Emission of Electric Octupole Radiation [Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 213001 (2021)].

Physical review letters·2026
Same journal

Laser-Plasma Based Seeded Free Electron Laser in the High-Gain Regime.

Physical review letters·2026
Same journal

Parent Hamiltonians for Stabilizer Quantum Many-Body Scars.

Physical review letters·2026
Same journal

Properties of Heavy Cosmic Nuclei Phosphorus, Chlorine, Argon, Potassium, and Calcium: Results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.

Physical review letters·2026
Same journal

Role of Spin-Isospin Symmetries in Nuclear β-Decays.

Physical review letters·2026
See all related articles

High voltage microscopy reveals stringlike domains penetrating ferroelectric crystals. These domains, similar to electrical breakdown channels, form under high electric fields and grow into the bulk, driven by system free energy reduction.

Area of Science:

  • Condensed matter physics
  • Materials science
  • Nanotechnology

Background:

  • Ferroelectric materials exhibit spontaneous electric polarization.
  • Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is used to probe material properties at the nanoscale.
  • Electrical breakdown in materials can lead to domain formation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the formation and growth of domains in ferroelectric materials under high electric fields.
  • To understand the mechanism driving domain penetration deep into the crystal bulk.
  • To develop a theoretical model explaining the observed domain morphology.

Main Methods:

  • High voltage atomic force microscopy (HV-AFM) was employed to apply localized electric fields.
  • In-situ observation of domain evolution within the ferroelectric crystal.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Theoretical modeling based on free energy minimization principles.

    • Main Results:

    • Stringlike domains were observed to penetrate from the ferroelectric surface into the crystal bulk.
    • Domain nucleation occurred at electric fields of approximately 10^7 V/cm.
    • Domain growth extended into regions with negligible external electric field.
    • A theoretical model confirmed that decreasing system free energy with increasing domain length drives the breakdown.

    Conclusions:

    • High electric fields can induce deep domain penetration in ferroelectric materials, resembling electrical breakdown.
    • The observed domain morphology is governed by the system's tendency to minimize its total free energy.
    • This phenomenon offers insights into the electrical transport and breakdown mechanisms in ferroelectrics.