Role of ferroelectric polarization during growth of highly strained ferroelectric materials.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32457379.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-16356-9 and PMC identifier 7251112.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
In ferroelectric thin films and superlattices, the polarization is intricately linked to crystal structure. Here we show that it can also play an important role in the growth process, influencing growth rates, relaxation mechanisms, electrical properties and domain structures. This is studied by focusing on the properties of BaTiO<sub>3</sub> thin films grown on very thin layers of PbTiO<sub>3</sub> using x-ray diffraction, piezoforce microscopy, electrical characterization and rapid in-situ x-ray diffraction reciprocal space maps during the growth using synchrotron radiation. Using a simple model we show that the changes in growth are driven by the energy cost for the top material to sustain the polarization imposed upon it by the underlying layer, and these effects may be expected to occur in other multilayer systems where polarization is present during growth. This motivates the concept of polarization engineering as a complementary approach to strain engineering.