Flexoelectricity is an electromechanical coupling between electrical polarization and a strain gradient¹ that enables mechanical manipulation of polarization without applying an electrical bias^2,3. Recently, flexoelectricity was directly demonstrated by mechanically switching the out-of-plane polarization of a uniaxial system with a scanning probe microscope tip^3,4. However, the successful application of flexoelectricity in low-symmetry multiaxial ferroelectrics and therefore active manipulation of multiple domains via flexoelectricity have not yet been achieved. Here, we demonstrate that the symmetry-breaking flexoelectricity offers a powerful route for the selective control of multiple domain switching pathways in multiaxial ferroelectric materials. Specifically, we use a trailing flexoelectric field that is created by the motion of a mechanically loaded scanning probe microscope tip. By controlling the SPM scan direction, we can deterministically select either stable 71° ferroelastic switching or 180° ferroelectric switching in a multiferroic magnetoelectric BiFeO₃ thin film. Phase-field simulations reveal that the amplified in-plane trailing flexoelectric field is essential for this domain engineering. Moreover, we show that mechanically switched domains have a good retention property. This work opens a new avenue for the deterministic selection of nanoscale ferroelectric domains in low-symmetry materials for non-volatile magnetoelectric devices and multilevel data storage.

柔电是电极化和应变梯度¹之间的机电耦合，它可以在不施加电偏压^2,3的情况下对极化进行机械处理。最近，通过用扫描探针显微镜头^3,4机械切换单轴系统的面外极化直接证明了柔电性。然而，挠性电在低对称多轴铁电体中的成功应用以及因此通过挠性电对多个畴的主动操纵尚未获得成功。在这里，我们证明了打破对称性的柔性电为选择控制多轴铁电材料中的多个域转换路径提供了一条有力的途径。具体而言，我们使用由机械加载的扫描探针显微镜尖端的运动产生的拖尾柔电场。通过控制SPM扫描方向，我们可以确定性地在多铁磁电BiFeO _3中选择稳定的71°铁磁开关或180°铁电开关。薄膜。相场仿真表明，放大的面内尾随柔性电场对于这一领域的工程至关重要。此外，我们表明机械切换的域具有良好的保留属性。这项工作为确定性地选择用于非易失性磁电器件和多层数据存储的低对称材料中的纳米级铁电畴开辟了一条新途径。