Energetics of charged domain walls in ferroelectric crystals

We calculated the energy variation due to the emergence of a new domain in barium titanate single crystal using equivalent inclusion method, and energy minimizing domain morphology and orientations have been identified. It is found that the energy difference between the charged and uncharged domain walls is relatively small, and the charged domain wall is metastable. It is also concluded that the compatibility of transformation strain plays a more important role in ferroelectric domain configurations than polarization compatibility, and the incompatibility of piezoelectric strain is insignificant. (C) 2007 American Institute of Physics.