Chemical control of polar behavior in bicomponent short-period superlattices

Abstract

Using first-principles density functional calculations, we study the interplay of ferroelectricity and polar discontinuities in a range of 1-1 oxide superlattices, built out of ferroelectric and paraelectric components. Studies have been carried out for a varied choice of chemical composition of the components. We find that, when polar interfaces are present, the polar discontinuities induce off- centric movements in the ferroelectric layers, even though the ferroelectric is only one unit cell thick. The distortions yield non-switchable polarizations, with magnitudes comparable to those of the corresponding bulk ferroelectrics. In contrast, in superlattices with no polar discontinuity at the interfaces, the off-centric movements in the ferroelectric layer are usually suppressed. The details of the behavior and functional properties are, however, found to be sensitive to epitaxial strain, rotational instabilities and second-order Jahn-Teller activity, and are therefore strongly in uenced by the chemical composition of the paraelectric layer.

7 pages, 2 figures

References in corpus (6)

• Magnetic effects at the interface between nonmagnetic oxides
• Electric Field Control of the LaAlO${}_3$/SrTiO${}_3$ Interface Ground State
• Avoiding the polarization catastrophe in LaAlO3 overlayers on SrTiO3(001) through a polar distortion
• Engineering multiferroism in CaMnO${}_3$
• Strain-induced ferroelectricity in simple rocksalt binary oxides
• Berry-phase theory of polar discontinuities at oxide-oxide interfaces

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Ferroelectricity driven magnetism at domain walls in LaAlO${}_3$/PbTiO${}_3$ superlattices
• Piezoelectric properties of ferroelectric perovskite superlattices with polar discontinuity
• Piezoelectrics by Design: A Route through Short-period Perovskite Superlattices
• Piezoelectric properties of II-IV/I-V and II-IV/III-III ferroelectric perovskite superlattices