Effects of the surface charge screening and temperature on the vortex domain patterns of ferroelectric nanodots

Abstract

Based on the phase field simulations, effects of the surface charge screening and temperature on the vortex domain structure of the ferroelectric nanodot have been investigated. Our calculations show that the ferroelectric nanodot adopts a rhombohedral vortex domain pattern under an ideal open-circuit boundary condition. With the increase of the surface charge screening, the dipole vortex gradually rotates and appears rhombohedral-orthorhombic-tetragonal transformation. By adjusting the surface charge screening, the polar single domain and multi-vortices domain patterns with zero toroidal moment have been obtained near the phase transition temperature. More importantly, temperature and charge screening “T-C” phase diagram has been summarized, which indicates an effective method to control the vortex domain structure in the low-dimensional ferroelectric nanostructures.