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Thick lead-free ferroelectric films with high Curie temperatures through nanocomposite-induced strain

Nature Nanotechnology volume 6, pages 491–495 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Ferroelectric materials are used in applications ranging from energy harvesting to high-power electronic transducers1. However, industry-standard ferroelectric materials contain lead, which is toxic and environmentally unfriendly2. The preferred alternative, BaTiO3, is non-toxic and has excellent ferroelectric properties, but its Curie temperature of ∼130 °C is too low to be practical3. Strain has been used to enhance the Curie temperature of BaTiO3 (ref. 4) and SrTiO3 (ref. 5) films, but only for thicknesses of tens of nanometres, which is not thick enough for many device applications. Here, we increase the Curie temperature of micrometre-thick films of BaTiO3 to at least 330 °C, and the tetragonal-to-cubic structural transition temperature to beyond 800 °C, by interspersing stiff, self-assembled vertical columns of Sm2O3 throughout the film thickness. The columns, which are 10 nm in diameter, strain the BaTiO3 matrix by 2.35%, forcing it to maintain its tetragonal structure and resulting in the highest BaTiO3 transition temperatures so far.

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Figure 1: Self-assembled vertical nanostructure.
Figure 2: Enhanced tetragonality at elevated temperature.
Figure 3: Direct electrical measurements.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to A. Fouchet for his assistance with preliminary studies. The work was supported by Downing College Cambridge, the European Commission (Marie Curie Excellence Grant ‘NanoFen’, MEXT-CT-2004-014156), European Research Council (ERC) (grant no. ERC-2009-adG 247276), UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and US National Science Foundation (NSF 07-09831 and ECCS-0708759). We wish to acknowledge the use of the Chemical Database Service at Daresbury and help from the US Department of Energy through the Los Alamos National Laboratory/Laboratory Directed Research and Development programme and the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3QZ, UK

    Sophie A. Harrington, Mary E. Vickers & Judith L. MacManus-Driscoll

  2. Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, MS K771, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, 87545, New Mexico, USA

    Junyi Zhai & Quanxi Jia

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA

    Sava Denev & Venkatraman Gopalan

  4. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A and M University, 3128 TAMU, College Station, 778433128, Texas, USA

    Haiyan Wang & Zhenxing Bi

  5. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EQ, UK

    Simon A. T. Redfern

  6. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, 53706, Wisconsin, USA

    Seung-Hyub Baek, Chung W. Bark & Chang-Beom Eom

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  1. Sophie A. Harrington
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Contributions

H.W. and Z.B. collected and analysed TEM images. V.G. and S.D. were responsible for SHG data. C.B.E., S.A.T.R., S.H.B. and C.W.B. were responsible for high-temperature XRD measurements. J.Z. advised on direct electrical measurements. M.E.V. and Q.J. discussed the results and commented on the manuscript. S.A.H. prepared films, collected room-temperature XRD data, performed direct electrical measurements and analysed data. S.A.H. and J.L.M. co-wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Sophie A. Harrington.

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Harrington, S., Zhai, J., Denev, S. et al. Thick lead-free ferroelectric films with high Curie temperatures through nanocomposite-induced strain. Nature Nanotech 6, 491–495 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2011.98

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