Folding catastrophes due to viscosity in multiferroic domains : implications for room-temperature multiferroic switching

Abstract

Unusual domains with curved walls and failure to satisfy the Landau–Lifshitz-Kittel Law are modeled as folding catastrophes (saddle-node bifurcations). This description of ballistic motion in a viscous medium is based upon early work by Dawber et al 2003 Appl. Phys. Lett . 82 436. It suggests that ferroelectric films can exhibit folds or vortex patterns but not both.