Orientation-dependent ferroelectricity of strained PbTiO₃ films

Abstract

PbTiO₃ is a simple but very important ferroelectric oxide that has been extensively studied and widely used in various technological applications. However, most previous studies and applications were based on the bulk material or the conventional [001]-orientated films. There are few studies on PbTiO₃ films grown along other crystalline axes. In this study, a first-principles calculation was performed to compute the polarization of PbTiO₃ films strained by SrTiO₃ and LaAlO₃ substrates. Our results show that the polarization of PbTiO₃ films strongly depends on the growth orientation as well as the monoclinic angles. Further, it is suggested that the ferroelectricity of PbTiO₃ mainly depends on the tetragonality of the lattice, instead of the simple strain.

Keywords

PbTiO₃ / tetragonality / strain

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg