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Epitaxial-strain-induced polar-to-nonpolar transitions in layered oxides

Nature Materials volume 15, pages 951–955 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Epitaxial strain can induce collective phenomena and new functionalities in complex oxide thin films. Strong coupling between strain and polar lattice modes can stabilize new ferroelectric phases from nonpolar dielectrics or enhance electric polarizations and Curie temperatures1. Recently, strain has also been exploited to induce novel metal–insulator transitions2,3 and magnetic reconstructions4,5,6,7 through its coupling to nonpolar modes, including rotations of BO6 transition-metal octahedra8. Although large strains are thought to induce ferroelectricity, here we demonstrate a polar-to-nonpolar transition in (001) films of layered A3B2O7 hybrid-improper ferroelectrics with experimentally accessible biaxial strains. We show the origin of the transition originates from the interplay of trilinear-related lattice mode interactions active in the layered oxides, and those interactions are directly strain tunable. Our results call for a careful re-examination of the role of strain–polarization coupling in ferroelectric films with nontrivial anharmonicities and offer a route to search for new functionalities in layered oxides.

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Figure 1: Strain dependence of the structure stability and electric polarization for (001) Ca3Ti2O7 films.
Figure 2: Local and crystal structure evolution in Ca3Ti2O7 with biaxial strain.
Figure 3: Origin of the P–NP transitions with biaxial strain.

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Acknowledgements

We thank L.-F. Huang for helpful discussions. X.-Z.L. and J.M.R. were supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the Pennsylvania State University MRSEC under award number DMR-1420620. DFT calculations were performed on the CARBON cluster at the Center for Nanoscale Materials [Argonne National Laboratory, supported by DOE-BES (DE-AC02-06CH11357)], the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE), which is supported by NSF (ACI-1053575), and the DoD Supercomputing Resource Centers supported by the High Performance Computing and Modernization Program of the DOD.

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  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA

    Xue-Zeng Lu & James M. Rondinelli

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  1. Xue-Zeng Lu
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Contributions

The study was planned, calculations carried out, and the manuscript prepared by X.-Z.L. and J.M.R. Both authors discussed the results, wrote, and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to James M. Rondinelli.

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Lu, XZ., Rondinelli, J. Epitaxial-strain-induced polar-to-nonpolar transitions in layered oxides. Nature Mater 15, 951–955 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4664

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