Advanced Materials, Vol.24, No.4, 523-523, 2012
Direct Observation of Ferrielectricity at Ferroelastic Domain Boundaries in CaTiO3 by Electron Microscopy
High-resolution aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy aided by statistical parameter estimation theory is used to quantify localized displacements at a (110) twin boundary in orthorhombic CaTiO(3). The displacements are 3-6 pm for the Ti atoms and confined to a thin layer. This is the first direct observation of the generation of ferroelectricity by interfaces inside this material which opens the door for domain boundary engineering.
Keywords:ferroelastic domain boudaries;ferrielectricity;CaTiO3;quantitative aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy;atomic displacements