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The influence of elastic strain gradient on the upper limit of flexocoupling strength, spatially-modulated phases and soft phonon dispersion in ferroics

Within the framework of Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire (LGD) theory we studied the role of the flexocoupling between the order parameter and elastic strain gradients in the stability of a spatially-modulated phase (SMP) in ferroics with commensurate and incommensurate long-range ordered phases under the presence of squired elastic strain gradient. The squired elastic strain gradient is required for the free energy stability to arbitrary strain gradients. Obtained analytical expressions showed that the fundamental upper limit for the magnitude of the static bulk flexoelectric effect strength, established by Yudin and Tagantsev under the absence of squired elastic strain gradient and higher order gradients terms, should be substituted by the temperature-dependent condition on the flexoelectric coupling strength under the presence of the gradient terms. Moreover, we established that the SMP appears and becomes stable in commensurate ferroics if the flexocoupling constant exceeds the critical value, defined by the reduced temperature, strain and order parameter gradients constants, striction and expansion coefficients in the LGD functional. We calculated the soft phonon dispersion in ferroics with commensurate and incommensurate long-range ordered phases allowing for the squired elastic strain gradient, as well as static and dynamic flexocoupling. Appeared that the dispersion for the optic mode is slightly sensitive to the flexocoupling, while the dispersion of acoustic mode strongly depends on the coupling strength. Obtained results demonstrate that the non-trivial differences in the dispersion of optic and acoustic modes appear under the change of flexocoupling constant.