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Herein, we examine the influence of controllable polarization reversal and built-in electric fields on pyroelectric and electrocaloric effects in a BaTiO3 thin film using a modified indirect method. We find that the magnitude of the sample's change in polarization with temperature is sensitive to the degree of polarization reversal. The pyroelectric response is small at low fractions of switched polarization and grows larger by several factors as larger fractions of polarization are reversed. This polarization reversal-sensitive pyroelectric behavior is the result of an internal built-in field, which has the effect of destabilizing low fractions of switched polarization and producing diminished pyroelectric effect. Greater fractions of switched polarization are more stable against backswitching and permit a larger pyroelectric response. Our findings highlight a characterization method for polarization-dependent pyroelectric effects in ferroelectric thin films, where built-in field effects are also present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

REFERENCES 1 J. W. Adkins, I. Fina, F. Sánchez, S. R. Bakaul, and J. T. Abiade, Appl. Phys. The use of the Center for Nanoscale Materials was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. J. T. Abiade acknowledges financial support from the U.S. National Science Foundation under Grant No. NSFDMR-1508220. [Extracted from the article]