Ferroelastic switching in ferroelectric/multiferroic oxides plays a crucial role in determining their dielectric, piezoelectric, and magnetoelectric properties. In thin films of these materials, however, substrate clamping is generally thought to limit the electric-field- or mechanical-force-driven responses to the local scale. Here, we report mechanical-force-induced large-area, non-local, collective ferroelastic domain switching in PbTiO₃ epitaxial thin films by tuning the misfit-strain to be near a phase boundary wherein c/a and a₁/a₂ nanodomains coexist. Phenomenological models suggest that the collective, c-a-c-a ferroelastic switching arises from the small potential barrier between the degenerate domain structures, and the large anisotropy of a and c domains, which collectively generates much larger response and large-area domain propagation. Large-area, non-local response under small stimuli, unlike traditional local response to external field, provides an opportunity of unique response to local stimuli, which has potential for use in high-sensitivity pressure sensors and switches.

铁电/多铁氧化物中的铁弹性转换在确定其介电，压电和磁电特性方面起着至关重要的作用。然而，在这些材料的薄膜中，通常认为衬底夹持将电场或机械力驱动的响应限制在局部范围内。这里，我们报告机械力诱导的大面积的，非本地，集体铁弹域交换中的PbTiO _3层通过调整失配应变外延薄膜是一个相界附近，其中的c / a和一个₁ /一个_2个纳米域共存。现象学模型表明，集体-c - a - c - a铁弹性转换是由退化的畴结构之间的小势垒以及a和c畴的大各向异性引起的，它们共同产生了更大的响应和大面积的畴传播。与传统的对外部场的局部响应不同，在小刺激下的大面积非局部响应提供了对局部刺激做出独特响应的机会，这有可能用于高灵敏度压力传感器和开关。