Abstract
Development of magnetoelectric, electromechanical,
and photovoltaic devices based on mixed-phase rhombohedral
tetragonal (R-T) BiFeO3 (BFO) systems is possible
only if the control of the engineered R phase variants is realized.
Accordingly, we explore the mechanism of a bias induced phase
transformation in this system. Single point spectroscopy demonstrates
that the T->R transition is activated at lower
voltages compared to T->T polarization switching. With
phase field modeling, the transition is shown to be electrically
driven. We further demonstrate that symmetry of formed R-phase rosettes can be broken by a proximal probe motion, allowing
controlled creation of R variants with defined orientation. This approach opens a pathway to designing next-generation
magnetoelectronic and data storage devices in the nanoscale.
