Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-skm99 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T07:57:17.948Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Features of the ferroelectric domain structure in the multiferroic material YbMnO3

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2016

Takumi Inoshita*
Affiliation:
Department of Electronic and Physical system, Waseda University, 3-4-1, Okubo, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 169-8555, Japan
Yasuhide Inoue
Affiliation:
Kagami Memorial Laboratory for Materials Science and Technology, Waseda University, 2-8-26, Nishiwaseda, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 169-0051, Japan
Yoichi Horibe
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Kyushu Institute of Technology, 1-1, Sensui, Tobata-ku, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, 804-8550, Japan
Yasumasa Koyama
Affiliation:
Department of Electronic and Physical system, Waseda University, 3-4-1, Okubo, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 169-8555, Japan Kagami Memorial Laboratory for Materials Science and Technology, Waseda University, 2-8-26, Nishiwaseda, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 169-0051, Japan
Get access

Abstract

The multiferroic material YbMnO3 has been reported to exhibit both ferroelectric and antiferromagnetic orders in the ground state. Of these two orders, the ferroelectric order is associated with the P63/mmc-to-P63cm structural transition, which occurs around 1270 K. The interesting feature of the ferroelectric state is that a cloverleaf domain structure with a pseudo-six-fold symmetry is observed in transmission electron microscopy images with the beam incidence parallel to the hexagonal axis. To understand the origin of the formation of the cloverleaf domain structure, we have examined the crystallographic features of the ferroelectric state in YbMnO3 by transmission electron microscopy. In this study, particularly, we adopted the experimental condition that electron beam incidences are perpendicular to the hexagonal axis. It was, as a result, found that there existed various ferroelectric domain structures including the cloverleaf domain structure under the present condition. The notable feature of domain structures found in this study is that each domain structure basically consists of six domains, whose domain boundaries are terminated at one point. Because this feature makes us reminiscent of a discommensurate structure in an incommensurate state, we took high-resolution electron micrographs of areas including domain boundaries. Their analysis indicated that a domain boundary could be identified as a discommensuration with a phase slip of π/3. It is thus understood that the cloverleaf domain structure should be one of domain morphologies for a discommensurate structure, which is related to the break of the translational symmetry.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Chae, S. C., Horibe, Y., Jeong, D. Y., Rodan, S., Lee, N., and Cheong, S.-W., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 107, 21366 (2010).Google Scholar
Liu, J., Toulouse, C., Rovillain, P., Cazayous, M., Gallais, Y., Measson, M-A., Lee, N., Cheong, S. W., and Sacuto, A., Phys. Rev. B86, 184410 (2012).Google Scholar
Chae, S. C., Lee, N., Horibe, Y., Tanimura, M., Mori, S., Gao, B., Carr, S., and Cheong, S.-W., Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 167603 (2012).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fennie, Craig J. and Rabe, Karin M., Phys. Rev. B72, 100103 (2005).Google Scholar
Choi, T., Horibe, Y., Yi, H. T., Choi, Y. J., Wu, W., and Cheong, S. W., Nature Mater. 9, 253 (2010).Google Scholar
Chae, S. C., Horibe, Y., Jeong, D.Y., Rodan, S., Lee, N., and Cheong, S.W., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 107, 21366 (2010).Google Scholar
Mori, S. and Horibe, Y., J. Kor. Phys. 46, 37 (2005).Google Scholar
Kobayashi, K., Kamo, H., Kurushima, K., Horibe, Y., Cheong, S. -W., Togawa, Y., and Mori, S., J. Kor. Phys. 62, 1077 (2013).Google Scholar