Low-Field Ferroelectric Switching realised by Forced Harmonic Oscillation of Domain Walls

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Sharma, Niyorjyoti, Black, Nathan, Guy, Joseph G. M., Barnes, Eftihia, Holsgrove, Kristina M., Rodriguez, Brian J., McQuaid, Raymond G. P., Gregg, J. Marty, Kumar, Amit
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2026
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author Sharma, Niyorjyoti
Black, Nathan
Guy, Joseph G. M.
Barnes, Eftihia
Holsgrove, Kristina M.
Rodriguez, Brian J.
McQuaid, Raymond G. P.
Gregg, J. Marty
Kumar, Amit
author_facet Sharma, Niyorjyoti
Black, Nathan
Guy, Joseph G. M.
Barnes, Eftihia
Holsgrove, Kristina M.
Rodriguez, Brian J.
McQuaid, Raymond G. P.
Gregg, J. Marty
Kumar, Amit
contents Conventionally, dc fields are used for switching dipole orientations in ferroelectrics. Such fields tilt the potential surface experienced by domain walls and thereby lower activation energies for their movement: escape from tilted potential wells is then realised by thermal excitation, allowing a "creep" process of pinning and depinning to develop. Borrowing ideas of domain wall resonance from the magnetic racetrack community, we show that ac fields, applied at the right frequency, can cause switching at much lower field magnitudes than dc ones (by factors of 4-5). Ferroelectric wall motion appears to be overdamped in the system studied (relaxor strontium barium niobate) and so the maximum in switching efficacy observed, at ~100 kHz, cannot be associated with resonant amplification, which needs an underdamped environment. Instead, in this high viscosity system, the frequency at which the maximum switching efficacy occurs seems to represent a compromise between the attempt frequency for wall depinning (which increases with frequency) and the extent to which energy is transferred to the wall within each field cycle (which decreases with frequency). Notwithstanding the absence of true resonance, the observation that ac excitation can dramatically reduce the bias levels needed for ferroelectric switching could still have significant ramifications for low energy memory technology.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_17266
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Low-Field Ferroelectric Switching realised by Forced Harmonic Oscillation of Domain Walls
Sharma, Niyorjyoti
Black, Nathan
Guy, Joseph G. M.
Barnes, Eftihia
Holsgrove, Kristina M.
Rodriguez, Brian J.
McQuaid, Raymond G. P.
Gregg, J. Marty
Kumar, Amit
Materials Science
Conventionally, dc fields are used for switching dipole orientations in ferroelectrics. Such fields tilt the potential surface experienced by domain walls and thereby lower activation energies for their movement: escape from tilted potential wells is then realised by thermal excitation, allowing a "creep" process of pinning and depinning to develop. Borrowing ideas of domain wall resonance from the magnetic racetrack community, we show that ac fields, applied at the right frequency, can cause switching at much lower field magnitudes than dc ones (by factors of 4-5). Ferroelectric wall motion appears to be overdamped in the system studied (relaxor strontium barium niobate) and so the maximum in switching efficacy observed, at ~100 kHz, cannot be associated with resonant amplification, which needs an underdamped environment. Instead, in this high viscosity system, the frequency at which the maximum switching efficacy occurs seems to represent a compromise between the attempt frequency for wall depinning (which increases with frequency) and the extent to which energy is transferred to the wall within each field cycle (which decreases with frequency). Notwithstanding the absence of true resonance, the observation that ac excitation can dramatically reduce the bias levels needed for ferroelectric switching could still have significant ramifications for low energy memory technology.
title Low-Field Ferroelectric Switching realised by Forced Harmonic Oscillation of Domain Walls
topic Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.17266