Results of switching behavior of the improper ferroelectric LuFeO3 are presented. Using a model set of films prepared under controlled chemical and growth‐rate conditions, it is shown that defects can reduce the quasi‐static switching voltage by up to 40% in qualitative agreement with first‐principles calculations. Switching studies show that the coercive field has a stronger frequency dispersion for the improper ferroelectrics compared to a proper ferroelectric such as PbTiO3. It is concluded that the primary structural order parameter controls the switching dynamics of such improper ferroelectrics.
We construct ferroelectric (LuFeO3)m∕(LuFe2O4) superlattices with varying index m to study the effect of confinement on topological defects. We observe a thickness-dependent transition from neutral to charged domain walls and the emergence of fractional vortices. In thin LuFeO3 layers, the volume fraction of domain walls grows, lowering the symmetry from P63cm to P3c1 before reaching the non-polar P63/mmc state, analogous to the high-temperature ferroelectric to paraelectric transition. Our study shows how dimensional confinement stabilizes textures beyond those in bulk ferroelectric systems.
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