Artificial creation of threshold characteristics in the domain switching of ferroelectric—Ferroelastic Gadolinium molybdate

A new method of providing artificially well-defined threshold characteristics in the domain switching of ferroelectric-ferroelastic Gd2(MoO4)3single crystals is presented and experimentally confirmed. The essence of the idea lies in the utilization of a coupling effect between the strain and the polarization which is a characteristic of ferroelectric-ferroelastic crystals. The potential barrier required for electrical switching with a definite threshold is produced by the strain due to locally deposited surface films, which results in strain-induced multidomain regions beneath the films and stabilizes the domain wall at the end of strain-free switching regions. The measured characteristics of the threshold switching elements were as follows; threshold voltage V and switching time ms at applied full voltage V. These threshold switching elements have potential applications to a ferroelectric light valve array and a ferroelectric memory device.