Invited:
Fifty five years of elastic domains

Similar to ferromagnetic and ferroelectric domains, elastic domains define the behavior of material under corresponding external field. The theory of elastic domains passed a long way from the interpretation of twinned structures of martensite phases [1] to the prediction of polydomain structures of epitaxial films [2]. At the end of 1980s, the possibility to produce defect free crystalline materials made the concept of elastic domains indispensable for modern functional materials [3-5].

The formation of elastic domains is an effective way to reduce internal stress in crystalline structures and it is currently considered as the mechanism of the stress relaxation. It has also been shown in ref [5] that besides the elastic domains, which decrease and, sometimes, completely relax the internal stress, there are also elastic domains, which may stabilize the internal stress, keeping it constant, during deformation of thin films. In this report, we present an outline of the theory supporting this phenomenon for the transformations in crystals and rods.

As an example of polydomain structure evolutions under stress and strain, we present the analysis of a tetragonal to orthorhombic transformation. It is shown that different transformation self-strain produce either “eutectic-like or “peritectic-like temperature-strain and temperature-stress diagrams describing the formation of equilibrium polydomain structures. The elastic anisotropy of the product phase may result in the formation of additional polydomain structures: “eutectic-like” case produces additional “peritectic” transformations and “peritectic-like” case produces additional “eutectic-like” transformations.

[1] Roitburd, A. L., Domain Structure of Crystals Formed in Solid Phase. Sov. Phys. Solid State 1969, 10, (12), 2870. (Fizika Tverdogo Tela 1968, 10, 12, 3619)

[2] Roitburd, A. L., Equilibrium Structure of Epitaxial Layers. Phys Status Solidi A 1976, 37, (1), 329-339. https://doi.org/10.1002/pssa.2210370141

[3] Roytburd, A. L., Elastic Domains and Polydomain Phases in Solids. Phase Transit 1993, 45, (1), 1-34. https://doi.org/10.1080/01411599308203516

[4] Tagantsev, A. K.; Cross, L. E.; Fousek, J., Domains in Ferroic Crystals and Thin Films. In Domains in Ferroic Crystals and Thin Films, Springer: Berlin, 2010; http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1417-0

[5] Roytburd, A. L.; Ouyang, J.; Artemev, A., Polydomain structures in ferroelectric and ferroelastic epitaxial films. J Phys-Condens Mat 2017, 29, (16), Artn 163001; http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1361-648x/29/16/163001