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Updated: Jul 13, 2026

Measuring Magnetically-Tuned Ferroelectric Polarization in Liquid Crystals
Published on: August 15, 2018
Controlling polarization dynamics in a liquid environment: from localized to macroscopic switching in ferroelectrics
B J Rodriguez1, S Jesse, A P Baddorf
1Materials Science and Technology Division and The Center for Nanophase Materials Science, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA.
Abstract:
The effect of disorder on polarization switching in ferroelectric materials is studied using piezoresponse force microscopy in a liquid environment. The spatial extent of the electric field created by a biased tip is controlled by the choice of medium, resulting in a transition from localized switching dictated by tip radius, to uniform switching across the film. In the localized regime, the formation of fractal domains has been observed with dimensionality controlled by the length scale of the frozen disorder. In the nonlocal regime, preferential nucleation at defect sites and the presence of long-range correlations has been observed.
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