Coexistence of Ferroelectric Triclinic Phases and Origin of Large Piezoelectric Responses in Highly Strained BiFeO3 films

Abstract

The structural evolution of the strain-driven morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) in BiFeO3 films has been investigated using synchrotron x-ray diffractometry in conjunction with scanning probe microscopy. Our results demonstrate the existence of mixed-phase regions that are mainly made up of two heavily tilted ferroelectric triclinic phases. Analysis of first-principles computations suggests that these two triclinic phases originate from a phase separation of a single monoclinic state accompanied by elastic matching between the phase-separated states. These first-principle calculations further reveal that the intrinsic piezoelectric response of these two low-symmetry triclinic phases is not significantly large, which thus implies that the ease of phase transition between these two energetically close triclinic phases is likely responsible for the large piezoelectric response found in the BiFeO3 films near its MPB. These findings not only enrich the understandings of the lattice and domain structure of epitaxial BiFeO3 films but may also shed some light on the origin of enhanced piezoelectric response near MPB.

19 pages, 3 figures and 1 table

References in corpus (5)

• Combinatorial discovery of a lead-free morphotropic phase boundary in a thin-film piezoelectric perovskite
• Stress-induced R-MA-MC-T symmetry changes in BiFeO3 films
• Low-Symmetry Monoclinic Phases and Polarization Rotation Path Mediated By Epitaxial Strain in Multiferroic BiFeO3 Thin Films
• First-principles predictions of low-energy phases of multiferroic BiFeO3
• Nanoscale domains in strained epitaxial BiFeO3 thin Films on LaSrAlO4 Substrate

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• Effects of the Hubbard U on density functional-based predictions of BiFeO${}_3$ properties
• Controllable Defect Driven Symmetry Change and Domain Structure Evolution in BiFeO3 with Enhanced Tetragonality
• Structural study in Highly Compressed BiFeO3 Epitaxial Thin Films on YAlO3
• Strain-gradient-induced magnetic anisotropy in straight-stripe mixed-phase bismuth ferrites: An insight into flexomagnetic phenomenon
• Periodic elastic nanodomains in ultrathin tetrogonal-like BiFeO3 films
• Nanosecond Optically Induced Phase Transformation in Compressively Strained BiFeO3 on LaAlO3
• Ultrafast light-induced shear strain probed by time-resolved X-ray diffraction: the model multiferroic BiFeO${}_3$ as a case study
• Domain tuning in mixed-phase BiFeO3 thin films using vicinal substrates
• Temperature-driven evolution of hierarchical nanodomain structure in tetragonal-like BiFeO3 films