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Negative-pressure-induced enhancement in a freestanding ferroelectric

Nature Materials volume 14, pages 985–990 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

Ferroelectrics are widespread in technology1, being used in electronics and communications2, medical diagnostics and industrial automation. However, extension of their operational temperature range and useful properties is desired3,4,5. Recent developments have exploited ultrathin epitaxial films on lattice-mismatched substrates, imposing tensile or compressive biaxial strain, to enhance ferroelectric properties6,7. Much larger hydrostatic compression can be achieved by diamond anvil cells8,9, but hydrostatic tensile stress is regarded as unachievable. Theory and ab initio treatments10 predict enhanced properties for perovskite ferroelectrics under hydrostatic tensile stress. Here we report negative-pressure-driven enhancement of the tetragonality, Curie temperature and spontaneous polarization in freestanding PbTiO3 nanowires, driven by stress that develops during transformation of the material from a lower-density crystal structure to the perovskite phase. This study suggests a simple route to obtain negative pressure in other materials, potentially extending their exploitable properties beyond their present levels.

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Figure 1: Crystalline structure and microstructure of the PbTiO3 nanowires.
Figure 2: Curie temperature of single wires probed by Raman spectroscopy.
Figure 3: Temperature-dependent lattice parameters and tetragonality of the multiple-wire sample and predicted effect of hydrostatic tensile stress by LGD phenomenology and first-principles calculations.
Figure 4: Pore profile at different wire thicknesses and simulation of the hydrostatic pressure during the PX–perovskite phase transition.

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Acknowledgements

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC grant agreement no. [268058]. Research within the MacDiarmid Institute is supported under the New Zealand Centres of Research Excellence fund. J. Wang acknowledges the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51302143) for financial support. Additional financial support was received from the Swiss National Science Foundation (Grant No. 200020_153177). We thank K. Vaideeswaran for sample preparation using focused ion beam and A. Duncan for nano-beam electron diffraction experiments using the JEOL 2200FS electron microscope.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ceramics Laboratory, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland

    Jin Wang, Tomas Sluka, Cosmin Sandu, Xian-Kui Wei, Alexander Kvasov, Leo John McGilly, Alexander Tagantsev & Nava Setter

  2. Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University, 518055 Shenzhen, China

    Jin Wang

  3. MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington 6140, New Zealand

    Ben Wylie-van Eerd & Joe Trodahl

  4. Interdisciplinary Centre for Electron Microscopy, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland

    Marco Cantoni

  5. Peter Grünberg Institute and Ernst Ruska Center for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons, Research Center Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany

    Xian-Kui Wei

  6. Laboratoire Structures, Propriétés et Modélisation des Solides, CNRS-UMR8580, Ecole Centrale Paris, Grande Voie des Vignes 92290 Châtenay-Malabry, France,

    Pascale Gemeiner & Brahim Dkhil

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Contributions

J.W. prepared the samples and merged the theory/modelling with experimental results. B.W.-v.E. and J.T. performed Raman spectroscopy on single wires. T.S. and A.T. conducted the modelling. C.S., X.-K.W. and M.C. characterized the sample by TEM. A.K. performed ab initio calculations advised by A.T. L.J.M. conducted piezoresponse measurements on individual wires. P.G. and B.D. carried out XRD measurements. J.W. and J.T. developed the concept of the paper. J.W., J.T. and N.S. wrote the manuscript with inputs from T.S. and A.T. N.S. was responsible for overall direction and coordination. All authors contributed to the manuscript and the interpretation of the data.

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Correspondence to Jin Wang or Nava Setter.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Wang, J., Wylie-van Eerd, B., Sluka, T. et al. Negative-pressure-induced enhancement in a freestanding ferroelectric. Nature Mater 14, 985–990 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4365

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