Effects of coherent ferroelastic domain walls on the thermal conductivity and Kapitza conductance in bismuth ferrite

Ferroelectric and ferroelastic domain structure has a profound effect on the piezoelectric, ferroelectric, and dielectric responses of ferroelectric materials. However, domain walls and strain field effects on thermal properties are unknown. We measured the thermal conductance from 100-400K of epitaxially grown BiFeO3 thin films with different domain variants, each separated primarily by 71 degrees domain walls. We determined the Kapitza conductance across the domain walls, which is driven by the strain field induced by the domain variants. This domain wall Kapitza conductance is lower than the Kapitza conductance associated with grain boundaries in all previously measured materials. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4798497]