  The switching behavior of antiferroelectric domain structures under the
applied electric field is not fully understood. In this work, by using the
phase field simulation, we have studied the polarization switching property of
antiferroelectric domains. Our results indicate that the ferroelectric domains
nucleate preferably at the boundaries of the antiferroelectric domains, and
antiferroelectrics with larger initial domain sizes possess a higher coercive
electric field as demonstrated by hysteresis loops. Moreover, we introduced
charge defects into the sample and numerically investigated their influence. It
is also shown that charge defects can induce local ferroelectric domains, which
could suppress the saturation polarization and narrow the enclosed area of the
hysteresis loop. Our results give insights into understanding antiferroelectric
phase transformation and optimizing the energy storage property in experiments.
