Self-Recovery of a Buckling BaTiO₃ Ferroelectric Membrane

The characteristic of self-recovery holds significant implications for upholding performance stability within flexible electronic devices following the release of mechanical deformation. Herein, the dynamics of self-recovery in a buckling inorganic membrane is studied via in situ scanning probe microscopy technology. The experimental results demonstrate that the ultimate deformation ratio of the buckling BaTiO₃ ferroelectric membrane is up to 88%, which is much higher than that of the buckling SrTiO₃ dielectric membrane (49%). Combined with piezoresponse force microscopy and phase-field simulations, we find that ferroelectric domain transformation accompanies the whole process of buckling and self-recovery of the ferroelectric membrane, i.e., the presence of the nano-c domain not only releases part of the elastic energy of the membrane but also reduces the interface mismatch of the a/c domain, which encourages the buckling ferroelectric membrane to have excellent self-recovery properties. It is conceivable that the evolution of ferroelectric domains will play a greater role in the regulation of the mechanical properties of ferroelectric membranes and flexible devices.