Electric-field response of polar nanodomains in BaTiO3

In this study, we have investigated the electric-field response of polar nanodomains in the ferroelectric tetragonal phase of BaTiO3. Polar nanodomains were observed by a combination of scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and convergent-beam electron diffraction (CBED). By applying an electric-field, significant changes in the distributions of nanometer-size domains were observed, besides the changes in the configurations of mesoscopic 90 degrees and 180 degrees ferroelectric domains. The obtained CBED patterns are categorized into three. One has higher tetragonal symmetry, and the other two show a deviation from tetragonal symmetry and exhibit a left-right reversal relation with each other. We propose a structural model of the rhombohedral nanodomain redistribution to reproduce the observed CBED patterns. The model consists of a balanced change in volume and size of rhombohedral nanodomains. Published under an exclusive license by AIP Publishing.