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Ferroelastic domain wall motion and collective domain switching in RbSCN

V. Soprunyuk1, A. Tröster1, J. Pils2, W. Schranz2,*, I. Rychetsky3, A. Klic3, and M. A. Carpenter4

  • *Contact author: wilfried.schranz@univie.ac.at
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Phys. Rev. B 114, 034113 – Published 17 July, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/rmsb-fvm3

Abstract

Low-frequency (0.05–40 Hz) dynamic elastic measurements and resonant ultrasound spectroscopy measurements (100–600 kHz) of RbSCN were performed in the temperature region of the order-disorder improper ferroelastic phase transition at Tc≈ 435 K. Quite similar to KSCN, the low-frequency data show, in addition to the intrinsic phase transition anomalies, superelastic softening in the a and b directions, resulting from movements of ferroelastic domain walls under dynamic stress. However, in contrast to KSCN, a sudden discontinuous increase of Young's modulus appears in RbSCN at T*<Tc, which is accompanied by a frequency-dependent damping peak. This behavior is reminiscent of a first-order phase transition. Heating RbSCN slightly above T*, followed by subsequent cooling, removes all signs of domain wall dynamics. The results demonstrate that the anomalies in RbSCN around T* result from collective domain switching events that are induced when the temperature-dependent critical pinning stress σc(T) falls below the applied external stress σ, implying that T*(σ=σc). This interpretation is supported by calculations of the temperature dependences of twin boundary widths w and energies Fw, as well as the Peierls potential V0 using a compressible pseudospin model, which leads to a critical pinning stress σc(T) that is in excellent agreement with experimental values of T*(σc).

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Phys. Rev. B 114, 034113– Published 17 July, 2026
  • Received 16 March 2026
  • Revised 21 May 2026
  • Accepted 30 June 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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