Fig. 2: Macro- and microscopic signatures of conductive DWs in GaV4S8.
a Dependence of the resistivity on electric (Ep = ±5.5 kV/cm) and magnetic (μ0Hp = 14 T) poling below TJT, implying the presence of conducting DWs. b Orientation of the polarization in the four polar domains, P1–P4, with respect to the (111) plane (green triangle), which was imaged by PFM and c-AFM. c Schematic representation of the domain pattern observed in (d–g). The crystal orientation and the coloring of the domains are according to (b). White and gray DW segments indicate charged (TT or HH) and uncharged HT junctions, respectively. d PFM image recorded at 15 K on the (111) surface of an unpoled sample. The polarization directions for domains present/absent in the local domain patterns are indicated by solid/dashed arrows with labeling and orientation according to (b). e The c-AFM image, recorded over the region with the thick dashed frame in (d), confirms the conducting nature of the ribbon- and folded sheet-like DWs, where the folded sheet is a hybrid of alternating HH and TT nanoscale conducting segments, located below and above the green star, respectively. The schematic inset indicates the orientations and assignments of the DWs observed in (d, e) as well as in the zoomed-in color-thresholded PFM and c-AFM images of (f, g), both corresponding to the region with the thin dashed frame in (d). Orientation and color coding follows those in (b, c).
