Direct evidence for ferroelectric polar distortion in ultrathin lead titanate perovskite films

Abstract

X-ray photoelectron diffraction is used to directly probe the intra-cell polar atomic distortion and tetragonality associated with ferroelectricity in ultrathin epitaxial PbTiO3 films. Our measurements, combined with ab-initio calculations, unambiguously demonstrate non-centro-symmetry in films a few unit cells thick, imply that films as thin as 3 unit cells still preserve a ferroelectric polar distortion, and also show that there is no thick paraelectric dead layer at the surface.

References in corpus (5)

• Ab initio study of BaTiO3 and PbTiO3 surfaces in external electric fields
• Ferroelectricity and tetragonality in ultrathin PbTiO3 films
• Ferroelectricity in ultra-thin perovskite films
• A Microscopic Model of Ferroelectricity in Stress-free PbTiO3 Ultrathin Films
• Coexistence of antiferrodistortive and ferroelectric distortions at the PbTiO${}_3$ (001) surface

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Avoiding the polarization catastrophe in LaAlO3 overlayers on SrTiO3(001) through a polar distortion
• Polar domains in lead titanate films under tensile strain
• Equilibrium and Stability of Polarization in Ultrathin Ferroelectric Films with Ionic Surface Compensation
• Depolarizing-Field Effect in Strained Nanoscale Ferroelectric Capacitors and Tunnel Junctions
• Monodomain to polydomain transition in ferroelectric PbTiO3 thin films with La0.67Sr0.3MnO3 electrodes
• Interface effects in ferroelectric PbTiO${}_3$ ultrathin films on a paraelectric substrate
• Strong influence of the complex bandstructure on the tunneling electroresistance: A combined model and ab-initio study
• Ultra-low-energy Electric field-induced Magnetization Switching in Multiferroic Heterostructures
• Comment on some articles regarding magnetization switching and computing using strain-mediated multiferroic composites
• Electric field-induced magnetization switching in interface-coupled multiferroic heterostructures: A highly-dense, non-volatile, and ultra-low-energy computing paradigm