Complex domain walls in BiFeO₃

Authors

Z. Gareeva, O. Diéguez, J. Íñiguez, and A. K. Zvezdin

Reference

Physical Review B, vol. 91, no. 6, p. 060404, 2015

Description

We present an investigation of the ferroelectric and magnetic domain walls in multiferroics BiFeO₃ combining first-principles structural data with a phenomenological modeling of the spin structure. We show that the structural distortions at the ferroelectric walls may lead to peculiar spin arrangements with nontrivial topologies. Further, we find that the magnetic walls depend strongly on the nature of the structural discontinuity, as the three possible cases considered—which correspond, respectively, to angles of 71^∘,109^∘, and 180^∘ between the polarizations of the neighboring domains—present distinctive features.

Link

doi: 10.1103/PhysRevB.91.060404