Strain-Assisted Domain Switching in Multiferroic BiFeO₃films.

Cutting energy cost is one of the major focuses in current research, driving efforts to minimize power consumption in logic operations and data storage. BiFeO₃, a well-known multiferroic material, shows strong coupling among its ferroic order parameters (i.e., ferroelectric, ferromagnetic, and ferroelastic). This strong coupling enables control of ferroelectric and ferroelastic domains through electric or mechanical energies. In this work, we explore an approach to reduce electrostatic energy requirements for domain switching in BFO by utilizing mechanical energy as an assisting factor. Our results demonstrate that mechanical energy effectively modifies the energy landscape of domain structures, allowing switching to occur at lower electric fields. The combined influence of electrostatic and mechanical energies leads to enhanced domain control and improved switching efficiency. This synergistic mechanism provides a promising pathway toward realizing low-power, multifunctional electronic and memory devices. This study offers a pathway to switch the domains in a controlled and quantitative manner and enables the dimension for the development of multi-stage memory devices.