Abstract
Oxide nano-springs have attracted many research interests because of their anti-corrosion, high-temperature tolerance, oxidation resistance, and enhanced-mechanic-response from unique helix structures, enabling various nano-manipulators, nano-motors, nano-switches, sensors, and energy harvesters. However, preparing oxide nano-springs is a challenge for their intrinsic nature of lacking elasticity. Here, we developed an approach for preparing self-assembled, epitaxial, ferroelectric nano-springs with built-in strain due to the lattice mismatch in freestanding La0.7Sr0.3MnO3/BaTiO3 (LSMO/BTO) bilayer heterostructures. We find that these LSMO/BTO nano-springs can be extensively pulled or pushed up to their geometry limits back and forth without breaking, exhibiting super-scalability with full recovery capability. The phase-field simulations reveal that the excellent scalability originates from the continuous ferroelastic domain structures, resulting from twisting under co-existing axial and shear strains. In addition, the oxide hetero-structural springs exhibit strong resilience due to the limited plastic deformation nature and the built-in strain between the bilayers. This discovery provides an alternative way for preparing and operating functional oxide nano-springs that can be applied to various technologies.