Modeling of flexoelectric effects in ferroelectric epitaxial thin films
A.K. Soh (Monash University), H.T. Chen (The University of Hong Kong)
Prager Medal Symposium in honor of George Weng: Micromechanics, Composites and Multifunctional Materials
Tue 10:45 - 12:15
MacMillan 117
Flexoelectric effects which describe the coupling between strain gradient and polarization have long been neglected due to small effects in bulk ferroelectrics. In this work, giant flexoelectric effects in epitaxial nano thin film are investigated with phase field model. The simulation results demonstrate that flexoelectricity induced polarization not only influences local polarization orientation but also macroscopic ferroelectric properties, such as hysteresis curves and coercive field. Moreover, the thickness effect related to flexoelectricity is studied. With the decrease of film thickness domain wall density increases resulting in increment of the volume ratio of large strain gradient region near the domain wall and consequently more apparent influence of flexoelectric effects can be observed.