Intrinsic Ferroelectric Coercive Field

Authors

Stephen Ducharme, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
V.M. Fridkin, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
A.V. Bune, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
S.P. Palto, Institute of Crystallography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
L.M. Blinov, Institute of Crystallography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
N.N. Petukhova, Institute of Crystallography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
S.G. Yudin, Institute of Crystallography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

Date of this Version

January 2000

Comments

Published by American Physical Society. Physical Review Letters 84, 175-8 (2000). http://prl.aps.org. Copyright © 2000 American Physical Society. Permission to use.

Abstract

The Landau-Ginzburg theory of ferroelectricity predicts the intrinsic coercive field for polarization reversal, but the observed extrinsic coercive field is always much smaller as a result of nucleation, dynamic processes not covered by the static theory. We have realized the intrinsic coercive field for the first time, in two-dimensional Langmuir-Blodgett polymer films as thin as 1 nm. The measured coercive field is in good agreement with the theoretical intrinsic value, exhibits the expected dependence on temperature, and does not depend on thickness below 15 nm.