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In this Article, we report on the observation of ferroelectric domain pattern in the whole volume of the ferroelectric barium titanate single crystal by means of the digital holographic microscopy (DHM). Our particular implementation of DHM is based on the Mach-Zehnder interferometer and the numerical processing of data employs the angular spectrum method. A modification of the DHM technique, which allows a fast and accurate determination of the domain walls, i.e. narrow regions separating the antiparallel domains, is presented. Accuracy and sensitivity of the method are discussed. Using this approach, the determination of important geometric parameters of the ferroelectric domain patterns (such as domain spacing or the volume fraction of the anti-parallel domains) is possible. In addition to the earlier DHM studies of domain patterns in lithium niobate and lithium tantalate, our results indicate that the DHM is a convenient method to study a dynamic evolution of ferroelectric domain patterns in all perovskite single crystals., Comment: Accepted in J. Phys. D. Appl. Phys

Motion of ferroelectric domain walls greatly contributes to the macroscopic dielectric and piezoelectric response of ferroelectric materials. The domain wall motion through the ferroelectric material is however hindered by pinning on crystal defects which substantially reduces these contributions. Here, using thermodynamic models based on the Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire theory, we find a relation between microscopic reversible motion of non-ferroelastic 180-degree domain walls interacting with a periodic array of pinning centers and the nonlinear macroscopic permittivity. We show, that the reversible motion of domain walls can be split into two basic modes. First, the bending of a domain wall between pinning centers, and, second, the uniform movement of domain wall plane. We show that their respective contributions may change when the distribution of pinning centers is rearranged during the material aging. We demonstrate that it is possible to indicate which mechanism of the domain wall motion is affected during material aging. This allows to judge whether the defects only homogeneously accumulate at domain walls or prefer to align in certain directions inside the domain wall plane. We suggest that this information can be obtained using simple macroscopic dielectric measurements and a proper analysis of the nonlinear response. Our results may therefore serve as a simple and useful tool to obtain details on domain wall pinning in an aging process., Comment: Accepted in Phys Rev B

An adaptive system for the suppression of vibration transmission using a single piezoelectric actuator shunted by a negative capacitance circuit is presented. It is known that using negative capacitance shunt, the spring constant of piezoelectric actuator can be controlled to extreme values of zero or infinity. Since the value of spring constant controls a force transmitted through an elastic element, it is possible to achieve a reduction of transmissibility of vibrations through a piezoelectric actuator by reducing its effective spring constant. The narrow frequency range and broad frequency range vibration isolation systems are analyzed, modeled, and experimentally investigated. The problem of high sensitivity of the vibration control system to varying operational conditions is resolved by applying an adaptive control to the circuit parameters of the negative capacitor. A control law that is based on the estimation of the value of effective spring constant of shunted piezoelectric actuator is presented. An adaptive system, which achieves a self-adjustment of the negative capacitor parameters is presented. It is shown that such an arrangement allows a design of a simple electronic system, which, however, offers a great vibration isolation efficiency in variable vibration conditions., Comment: This is a revised version of the paper published in IEEE TUFFC in Dec 2012, which includes the erratum submitted in Feb 2014

This paper analyzes the possibility of increasing the acoustic transmission loss of sound transmitted through planar or curved glass shells using attached piezoelectric macro fiber composite (MFC) actuators shunted by active circuits with a negative capacitance. The key features that control the sound transmission through the curved glass shells are analyzed using an analytical approximative model. A detailed analysis of the particular arrangement of MFC actuators on the glass shell is performed using a finite element method (FEM) model. The FEM model takes into account the effect of a flexible frame that clamps the glass shell at its edges. A method is presented for the active control of the Young's modulus and the bending stiffness coefficient of the composite sandwich structure that consists of a glass plate and the attached piezoelectric MFC actuator. The predictions of the acoustic transmission loss frequency dependencies obtained by the FEM model are compared with experimental data. The results indicate that it is possible to increase the acoustic transmission loss by 20 and 25 dB at the frequencies of the first and second resonant modes of the planar and curved glass shells, respectively, using the effect of the shunt circuit with a negative capacitance., Comment: Final proof-edited version

The interaction of electric field with charged domain walls in ferroelectrics is theoretically addressed. A general expression for the force acting per unit area of a charged domain wall carrying free charge is derived. It is shown that, in proper ferroelectrics, the free charge carried by the wall is dependent on the size of the adjacent domains. As a result, it was found that the mobility of such domain wall (with respect to the applied field) is sensitive to the parameters of the domain pattern containing this wall. The problem of the force acting on a planar charged 180-degree domain wall normal to the polarization direction in a periodic domain pattern in a proper ferroelectric is analytically solved in terms of Landau theory. It is shown that, in small applied fields (in the linear regime), the forces acting on walls in such pattern increase with decreasing the wall spacing, the direction of the forces coinciding with those for the case of the corresponding neutral walls. At the same time, for large enough wall spacings and large enough fields, these forces can be of the opposite sign. It is shown that the domain pattern considered is unstable in a defect-free ferroelectric. The poling of a crystal containing such pattern, stabilized by the pinning pressure, is also considered. It is shown that, except for a special situation, the presence of charge domain walls can make poling more difficult. It is demonstrated that the results obtained are also applicable to zig-zag walls under the condition that the zig-zag amplitude is much smaller than the domain wall spacing., Comment: 5 figures

A theoretical study of a dielectrophoretic force, i.e. the force acting on an electrically neutral particle in the inhomogeneous electric field, which is produced by a ferroelectric domain pattern, is presented. It has been shown by several researchers that artificially prepared domain patterns with given geometry in ferroelectric single crystals represent an easy and flexible method for patterning dielectric nanoobjects using dielectrophoretic forces. The source of the dielectrophoretic force is a strong and highly inhomogeneous (stray) electric field, which exists in the vicinity of the ferroelectric domain walls at the surface of the ferroelectric film. We analyzed dielectrophoretic forces in the model of a ferroelectric film of a given thickness with a lamellar 180${}^\circ$ domain pattern. The analytical formula for the spatial distribution of the stray field in the ionic liquid above the top surface of the film is calculated including the effect of free charge screening. The spatial distribution of the dielectrophoretic force produced by the domain pattern is presented. The numerical simulations indicate that the intersection of the ferroelectric domain wall and the surface of the ferroelectric film represents a trap for dielectric nanoparticles in the case of so called positive dielectrophoresis. The effects of electrical neutrality of dielectric nanoparticles, free charge screening due to the ionic nature of the liquid, domain pattern geometry, and the Brownian motion on the mechanism of nanoparticle deposition and the stability of the deposited pattern are discussed., Comment: Accepted in the Journal of Applied Physics, 10 pages, 5 figures

An evidence that the dielectric ageing in the polydomain Pb(Zr0.45Ti0.55)O3 thin films is controlled by progressive pinning of 180 domain walls is presented. To provide such a conclusion, we use a general method, which is based on the study of the time evolution of the nonlinear, but anhysteretic, dielectric response of the ferroelectric to a weak electric field. A thermodynamic model of the ferroelectric system where the dielectric response is controlled by bending movements of pinned 180 domain walls is developed. Within this model, the nonlinear permittivity of the ferroelectric is expressed as a function of the microstructural parameters of the domain pattern. It is shown that using the analysis of the time evolution of the nonlinear permittivity, it is possible to estimate changes in the concentration of the pinning centers that block the movements of the 180 domain walls during aging in polydomain perovskite ferroelectrics., Comment: This version is modifed and corrected according to recently published Erratum: Phys. Rev. B 79, 219903(E) (2009). 21 pages, 3 figures

It is known that the permittivity of the ferroelectric films is affected by several phenomena, which deteriorate the material quality (e.g. the redistribution of the crystal lattice defects, appearance of the electrode-adjacent non-ferroelectric layers or the spontaneous polarization screening due to a free charge injection across the electrode-adjacent layer, etc.). It is also known that the permittivity of ferroelectric polydomain films is controlled by the sum of two contributions: the crystal lattice (intrinsic) contribution and the domain wall movement (extrinsic) contribution. It is the latter one, which is very sensitive to the aforementioned phenomena and which plays a key role in the deterioration of the dielectric response of the ferroelectric polydomain films. In this Article, there is presented a method for the identification of the process, which is responsible for the ferroelectric ageing. The method is based on the analysis of the evolution of both the linear and nonlinear permittivity during ageing. Applicability of the method is theoretically demonstrated on four ageing scenarios in two qualitatively different systems where the evolution of the nonlinear permittivity is controlled, first, by a redistribution of the pinning centers on the domain wall and, second, by microstructural changes at the interface between the ferroelectric layer and the electrode. It is shown that each ageing scenario is characterized by unique trend in the evolution between the linear and nonlinear part of the permittivity, which can be verified experimentally., Comment: Submitted to Ferroelectrics