Engineering polarization rotation in a ferroelectric superlattice

Abstract

A key property that drives research in ferroelectric perovskite oxides is their strong piezoelectric response in which an electric field is induced by an applied strain, and vice-versa for the converse piezoelectric effect. We have achieved an experimental enhancement of the piezoelectric response and dielectric tunability in artificially layered epitaxial PbTiO${}_3$/CaTiO${}_3$ superlattices through an engineered rotation of the polarization direction. As the relative layer thicknesses within the superlattice were changed from sample to sample we found evidence for polarization rotation in multiple x-ray diffraction measurements. Associated changes in functional properties were seen in electrical measurements and piezoforce microscopy. The results demonstrate a new approach to inducing polarization rotation under ambient conditions in an artificially layered thin film.

5 pages, 4 figures, Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett

References in corpus (4)

• Dual-Frequency Resonance-Tracking Atomic Force Microscopy
• Stress-induced R-MA-MC-T symmetry changes in BiFeO3 films
• Interplay of couplings between antiferrodistortive, ferroelectric, and strain degrees of freedom in monodomain PbTiO${}_3$/SrTiO${}_3$ superlattices
• Spectroscopic mapping of local structural distortions in ferroelectric PbTiO3/SrTiO3 superlattices at the unit-cell scale

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• Role of ferroelectric polarization during growth of highly strained ferroelectrics revealed by in-situ x-ray diffraction
• Polarization rotation in Bi${}_4$Ti${}_3$O${}_{12}$ by isovalent doping at the fluorite sublattice
• Interplay of Coulomb Blockade and Ferroelectricity in Nano-Granular Materials
• Ferroelectric polarization rotation in order-disorder-type LiNbO3 thin films
• Ab initio design of charge-mismatched ferroelectric superlattices
• Interplay of ferroelectricity and single electron tunneling
• Piezoelectric properties of ferroelectric perovskite superlattices with polar discontinuity
• Memory effect in ferroelectric single electron transistor: violation of conductance periodicity in the gate voltage
• Structural behaviour of BiFeO3/SrRuO3 superlattices: an X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy investigation
• Electrical Control of Large Rashba Effect in Oxide Heterostructures