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TT: Fachverband Tiefe Temperaturen
TT 11: Ferroelectric Domain Walls I (joint session KFM/TT)
TT 11.2: Talk
Monday, March 12, 2018, 10:00–10:15, EMH 225
Charged domain walls and point defect-DW interactions in hexagonal manganites — Didrik Rene Småbråten1, Quitin Meier2, Sandra Helen Skjaervoe1, Thomas Tybell1, Dennis Meier1, and •Sverre Magnus Selbach1 — 1NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway — 2Materials Theory, ETH Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
Charged head-to-head and tail-to-tail ferroelectric domain walls (DW) in hexagonal manganites are stable because of the improper nature of the ferroelectricity in these materials, and it has been experimentally shown that their electronic properties can differ strongly from bulk. First principles studies of charged DWs are scarce and the inherent electrostatic fields make DFT calculations challenging. Here we combine density functional theory (DFT) calculations with a continuum model based on Landau theory to study the properties of charged DWs in YMnO3, InMnO3 and isostructural YGaO3. We find excellent agreement between the micro- and macroscopic models, and show that the Mexican hat energy landscape of hexagonal maganites derived from Landau theory also emerges naturally from DFT calculations of their DWs. Head-to-head and tail-to-tail DW are structurally inequivalent due to the different local chemical bonding. We formulate a general criterion based on polarization and band gap for when charged DWs become conducting. Finally, we study interactions between DWs and oxygen interstitials and vacancies by DFT.