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Phys. Rev. B 81, 172101 (2010) [4 pages]

Topology of the polarization field in ferroelectric nanowires from first principles

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Jiawang Hong1,2, G. Catalan1,3, D. N. Fang2,4, Emilio Artacho1,5, and J. F. Scott1,6
1Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, United Kingdom
2AML, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People’s Republic of China
3ICREA and Centre d’Investigació en Nanociència i Nanotecnologia (CIN2), Campus UAB, Bellaterra, Spain
4LTCS, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100084, People’s Republic of China
5Donostia International Physics Centre, Universidad del Pais Vasco, 20080 San Sebastian, Spain
6Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, United Kingdom

Received 25 July 2009; published 10 May 2010

The behavior of the cross-sectional polarization field is explored for arrays of thin nanowires of barium titanate from first principles. Topological defects of different winding numbers have been obtained, beyond the known textures in ferroelectric nanostructures. They result from the inward accommodation of patterns imposed at the surface of the wire by surface and edge effects. Close to a topological defect, the polarization field orients out of the basal plane in some cases, maintaining a close to constant magnitude, whereas it virtually vanishes in other cases.

© 2010 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.81.172101
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevB.81.172101
PACS:
77.80.Dj, 61.46.Km
 
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