Ferrielectricity in the archetypal antiferroelectric, PbZrO3

Yulian Yao, Aaron Naden, Mengkun Tian, Sergey Lisenkov, Zachary Beller, Amit Kumar, Josh Kacher, Inna Ponomareva, Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Citations (Scopus)
45 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Antiferroelectric materials, where the transition between antipolar and polar phase is controlled by external electric fields, offer exceptional energy storage capacity with high efficiencies, giant electrocaloric effect, and superb electromechanical response. PbZrO3 is the first discovered and the archetypal antiferroelectric material. Nonetheless, substantial challenges in processing phase pure PbZrO3 have limited studies of the undoped composition, hindering understanding of the phase transitions in this material or unraveling the controversial origins of a low-field ferroelectric phase observed in lead zirconate thin films. Leveraging highly oriented PbZrO3 thin films, a room-temperature ferrielectric phase is observed in the absence of external electric fields, with modulations of amplitude and direction of the spontaneous polarization and large anisotropy for critical electric fields required for phase transition. The ferrielectric state observations are qualitatively consistent with theoretical predictions, and correlate with very high dielectric tunability, and ultrahigh strains (up to 1.1%). This work suggests a need for re-evaluation of the fundamental science of antiferroelectricity in this archetypal material.
Original languageEnglish
Article number2206541
JournalAdvanced Materials
Volume35
Issue number3
Early online date31 Oct 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 19 Jan 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
N.B.‐G. and Y.Y. acknowledge financial support by the U.S. National Science Foundation under grant No. CMMI‐1537262, DMR‐ 2026976. N.B.‐G., S.L, and Z.B. acknowledge financial support by the U.S. National Science Foundation under grant DMR‐2219476. N.B.‐G. and Z.B. also acknowledge financial support by the Harris Saunders Jr. Chair endowment at Georgia Tech. A.B.N. acknowledges financial support by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council under grant numbers EP/L017008/1, EP/R023751/1 and EP/T019298/1. I.P. acknowledges financial support by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering under grant DE‐SC0005245. A.K. gratefully acknowledges support by Department of Education and Learning, Northern Ireland through the US‐Ireland R&D partnership Grant No. USI‐211.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.

Keywords

  • General Materials Science
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Mechanics of Materials

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Materials Science
  • Mechanics of Materials
  • Mechanical Engineering

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