Temperature-independent giant dielectric response in transitional BaTiO3 thin films
[1];
[3];
[7];
[8];
[5];
[10]
- Univ. of Groningen (The Netherlands). Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials; OSTI
- CEMES-CNRS (France); Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons (ER-C), Julich (Germany)
- Ruhr Univ., Bochum (Germany). ICAMS
- Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, IL (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
- Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences (Czech Republic)
- Univ. of Groningen (The Netherlands). Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials
- Univ. Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain). Catalan Inst. of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), CSIC, Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology Campus
- Univ. Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain). Catalan Inst. of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), CSIC, Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology Campus; ICREA, Barcelona (Spain)
- UMR CNRS-Université Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay (France). Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
- Univ. of Groningen (The Netherlands). Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials and Groningen Cognitive Systems and Materials Centre (CogniGron)
Ferroelectric materials exhibit the largest dielectric permittivities and piezoelectric responses in nature, making them invaluable in applications from supercapacitors or sensors to actuators or electromechanical transducers. The origin of this behavior is their proximity to phase transitions. However, the largest possible responses are most often not utilized due to the impracticality of using temperature as a control parameter and to operate at phase transitions. This has motivated the design of solid solutions with morphotropic phase boundaries between different polar phases that are tuned by composition and that are weakly dependent on temperature. Thus far, the best piezoelectrics have been achieved in materials with intermediate (bridging or adaptive) phases. But so far, complex chemistry or an intricate microstructure has been required to achieve temperature-independent phase-transition boundaries. Here, we report such a temperature-independent bridging state in thin films of chemically simple BaTiO3. A coexistence among tetragonal, orthorhombic, and their bridging low-symmetry phases are shown to induce continuous vertical polarization rotation, which recreates a smear in-transition state and leads to a giant temperature-independent dielectric response. The current material contains a ferroelectric state that is distinct from those at morphotropic phase boundaries and cannot be considered as ferroelectric crystals. We believe that other materials can be engineered in a similar way to contain a ferroelectric state with gradual change of structure, forming a class of transitional ferroelectrics. Similar mechanisms could be utilized in other materials to design low-power ferroelectrics, piezoelectrics, dielectrics, or shape-memory alloys, as well as efficient electro- and magnetocalorics.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- FG02-01ER45923
- OSTI ID:
- 1800032
- Journal Information:
- Applied Physics Reviews, Journal Name: Applied Physics Reviews Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 7; ISSN 1931-9401
- Publisher:
- American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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