1D Modulation: Atomic Level 1D Structural Modulations at the Negatively Charged Domain Walls in BiFeO₃ Films (Adv. Mater. Interfaces 9/2015)

Atomic structures of tail-to-tail negatively charged domain walls in BiFeO3 thin films are revealed via aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy, as described in article 1500024 by Y.-L. Zhu, X. L. Ma, and co-workers. On (100) type charged domain walls, one-dimensional structural modulations are demonstrated, with lattice spacing and lattice rotation varying in a periodic way along the domain wall. The structural variations show a remarkable contrast to uncharged domain walls and imply delicate interactions between bound charges and structural compensations of the domain wall. These findings may help to provide new information on domain wall structures and to improve understanding of domain wall properties in ferroelectrics.