Search

PbZrO3 has been broadly considered as a prototypical antiferroelectric material for high-power energy storage. A recent theoretical study suggests that the ground state of PbZrO3 is threefold-modulated ferrielectric, which challenges the generally accepted antiferroelectric configuration. However, such a novel ferrielectric phase was predicted only to be accessible at low temperatures. Here, we successfully achieve the room-temperature construction of the strongly competing ferrielectric and antiferroelectric state by strain-mediated phase separation in PbZrO3/SrTiO3 thin film. We demonstrate that the phase separation occurs spontaneously in quasi-periodic stripe-like patterns under a compressive misfit strain and can be tailored by varying the film thickness. The ferrielectric phase strikingly exhibitsa threefold modulation period with a nearly up-up-down configuration, which could be stabilized and manipulated by the formation and evolution of interfacial defects under applied strain. The present results construct a fertile ground for further exploring the physical properties and applications based on the novel ferrielectric phase. There is a desire to know how the threefold ferrielectric coexists with the antiferroelectric phase. Here, the authors realize a threefold-modulated ferrielectric phase regulated by strain-mediated phase separation in PbZrO3 thin film. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is the behavior of electric-field induced antiferroelectric to ferroelectric (AFE-FE) phase transition that determines the specific application scenario of antiferroelectric materials. Here, we report that the evolution of the atomic displacement ordering from full-ordered to semi-ordered modulation should be responsible for the change in the behavior of the AFE-FE transition from sharp to diffuse. The novel semi-ordered configuration is originated from the competing interaction between long-range displacement modulation and compositional inhomogeneity, which just makes the AFE-FE transition diffuse but maintains the switching field. These results provide atomic-scale understanding for AFE-FE transition and new insights for designing hysteresis-free antiferroelectric materials. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]