- Award ID(s):
- 1149763
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10025062
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Biological Chemistry
- Volume:
- 290
- Issue:
- 31
- ISSN:
- 0021-9258
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 19319 to 19333
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract The potential for creating hierarchical domain structures, or mixtures of energetically degenerate phases with distinct patterns that can be modified continually, in ferroelectric thin films offers a pathway to control their mesoscale structure beyond lattice‐mismatch strain with a substrate. Here, it is demonstrated that varying the strontium content provides deterministic strain‐driven control of hierarchical domain structures in Pb1−
x Srx TiO3 solid‐solution thin films wherein two types,c /a anda 1/a 2, of nanodomains can coexist. Combining phase‐field simulations, epitaxial thin‐film growth, detailed structural, domain, and physical‐property characterization, it is observed that the system undergoes a gradual transformation (with increasing strontium content) from droplet‐likea 1/a 2 domains in ac /a domain matrix, to a connected‐labyrinth geometry ofc /a domains, to a disconnected labyrinth structure of the same, and, finally, to droplet‐likec /a domains in ana 1/a 2 domain matrix. A relationship between the different mixed‐phase modulation patterns and its topological nature is established. Annealing the connected‐labyrinth structure leads to domain coarsening forming distinctive regions of parallelc /a anda 1/a 2 domain stripes, offering additional design flexibility. Finally, it is found that the connected‐labyrinth domain patterns exhibit the highest dielectric permittivity.