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Glasslike Dynamics of Polar Domain Walls in Cryogenic SrTiO_{3}.

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

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Type

Article

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Authors

Pesquera, David 
Carpenter, Michael A 
Salje, Ekhard KH 

Abstract

Polar and highly mobile domain walls in SrTiO_{3} move under electric and elastic fields. Two vastly different timescales dominate their dynamical behavior. The previously observed fast changes lead to anomalies near 40 K where the elastic moduli soften and the polarity of the walls becomes strong. Keeping the sample under isothermal conditions leads to a new and unexpected phenomenon: The softening vanishes over timescales of days while the piezoelectricity of the sample remains unchanged. The hardening follows glass dynamics below an onset at T^{*}≈40  K. The timescale of the hardening is strongly temperature dependent and can be followed experimentally down to 34 K when the relaxation is not completed within two days. The relaxation time of a stretched exponential decay increases exponentially with the decreasing temperature. This relaxation process follows similar dynamics after zero-field cooling and after applying or removing an electric field. The sluggish behavior is attributed to collective interactions of domain patterns following overdamped glass dynamics rather than ballistic dynamics.

Description

Keywords

0912 Materials Engineering

Journal Title

Phys Rev Lett

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0031-9007
1079-7114

Volume Title

121

Publisher

American Physical Society (APS)
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/P024904/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/I036079/1)
Natural Environment Research Council (NE/F017081/1)
This work was funded by EPSRC grant no. EP/P024904/1. Experimental facilities in Cambridge were established through grants from the Natural Environment Research Council (grant nos. NE/B505738/1, NE/F017081/1) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (grant no. EP/I036079/1)