Flexocoupling impact on size effects of piezoresponse and conductance in mixed-type ferroelectric semiconductors under applied pressure

Abstract

Flexocoupling impact on the size effects of the spontaneous polarization, effective piezo-response, elastic strain and compliance, carrier concentration and piezo-conductance have been calculated in thin films of ferroelectric semiconductors with mixed-type conductivity under applied pressure. Analysis of the self-consistent calculation results revealed that the thickness dependences of aforementioned physical quantities, calculated at zero and nonzero flexoelectric couplings, are very similar under zero applied pressure, but become strongly different under the application of external pressure pext. At that the differences become noticeably stronger for the film surface under compression than under tension. The impact of the Vegard mechanism on the size effects is weaker in comparison with flexocoupling except for the thickness dependence of the piezo-conductance. Without flexoelectric coupling the studied physical quantities manifest conventional peculiarities that are characteristic of the size-induced phase transitions. Namely, when the film thickness h approaches the critical thickness hcr the transition to paraelectric phase occurs. The combined effect of flexoelectric coupling and external pressure induces polarizations at the film surfaces, which cause the electric built-in field that destroys the thickness-induced phase transition to paraelectric phase at h= hcr and induces the electret-like state with irreversible spontaneous polarization at h<hcr. The built-in field leads to noticeable increase of the average strain and elastic compliance under the film thickness decrease below hcr that scales as 1/h at small thicknesses h. The changes of the electron concentration by several orders of magnitude under positive or negative pressures can lead to the occurrence of high- or low-conductivity states, i.e. the nonvolatile piezo-resistive switching.