Effect of depolarizing field on domain structure of an improper ferroelectric

We show that, contrary to common belief, the depolarizing electric field generated by bound charges at thin-film surfaces can have a substantial impact on the domain structure of an improper ferroelectric with topological defects. In hexagonal-manganite thin films, we observe in phase-field simulations that through the action of the depolarizing field, (1) the average magnitude of the polarization decreases, (2) the local magnitude of the polarization decreases with increasing distance from the domain walls, and (3) there is a significant alteration of the domain-size distribution and average domain size, which is visualized with the pair-correlation function. We conclude that, in general, it is not appropriate to ignore the effects of the depolarizing field for thin-film ferroelectrics.