Polarization Near Dislocation Cores in SrTiO3 Single Crystals: the Role of Flexoelectricity

Spontaneous polarization as large as ∼28 μC/cm2 was recently observed around the dislocation cores in non-polar SrTiO3 bulk crystals, and its origin was attributed to the flexoelectric effect, i.e., polarization induced by strain gradients. However, the roles of flexoelectricity, relative to other electromechanical contributions, and the nature of dislocations, i.e., edge vs screw dislocations in the induced polarization, are not well understood. In this work, we study the role of flexoelectricity in inducing polarization around three types of dislocation cores in SrTiO3: b=a(100) edge dislocation, b=a(110) edge dislocation, and b=a(010) screw dislocation, where b is the Burgers vector. For the edge dislocations, polarization can be induced by electrostriction alone, while flexoelectricity is essential for stabilizing the symmetric polarization pattern. The shear component of the flexoelectric tensor has a dominant effect on the magnitude and spatial distribution of the flexoelectric polarization. In contrast, no polarization is induced around the b=a(010) screw dislocation through either electrostriction or flexoelectricity. Our findings provide an in-depth understanding of the role of flexoelectricity in inducing polarization around dislocation cores and offer insights into the defect engineering of dielectric/ferroelectric materials.