The phase-field simulations of ferroelectric Bloch domain walls in BaTiO3-SrTiO3 crystalline superlattices performed in this study suggest that a paraelectric layer with a thickness comparable to the thickness of the domain wall itself can act as an efficient pinning layer. At the same time, such a layer facilitates the possibility to switch domain wall helicity by an external electric field or even to completely change the characteristic structure of a ferroelectric Bloch wall passing through it. Thus, ferroelectric Bloch domain walls are shown to be ideal nanoscale objects with switchable properties. The reported results hint towards the possibility to exploit ferroelectric domain wall interaction with simple nanoscale devices.
Keywords: BaTiO3–SrTiO3 superlattices; Ginzburg–Landau–Devonshire model; ferroelectric domain walls; phase-field simulations.