Improper origin of polar displacements at CaTiO 3 and CaMnO 3 twin walls

Recent interest in novel functionalities arising at domain walls of ferroic materials naturally calls for a microscopic understanding. To this end, first-principles calculations have been performed in order to provide solid evidence of polar distortions in the twin walls of nonpolar CaTiO3 and magnetic CaMnO3. We show that such polar displacements arise from rotation and/or tilting octahedral distortions—cooperatively acting at the twin wall in both considered systems—rather than from a proper secondary ferroelectric instability, as often believed. Our results are in excellent agreement with experimental observations of domain walls in CaTiO3. In addition, we show that magnetic properties at the twin wall in CaMnO3 are also modified, thus suggesting an unexplored route to achieve and detect multiferroic ordering in a single-phase material.