Ferroelectric domain structures in SrBi ₂Nb ₂O ₉ epitaxial thin films: Electron microscopy and phase-field simulations

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) along with computer simulations coupled with phase-field methods were used for the investigation of ferroelectric domain structures of SrBi ₂Nb ₂O ₉ epitaxial thin films. The investigational observations show that the ferroelectric domain morphology of thin films was irregular, with highly curved domain walls. It was observed that the isotropic domain wall energy largely effected the domain morphology. It was shown that as the ferroelastic distortion increased, the domain walls became increasingly faceted. The results show that the faceted nature of prototypical oxides is the result of ferroelastic distortions.