Single Ferroelectric Material Research Articles

Design, modelling and experiments on a multisource energy harvester based on a single ferroelectric ceramic

Abstract Energy harvesting is a promising technique that can provide renewable and clean energy for the wireless sensor nodes. However, the solar, mechanical and thermal energies in our living environment are not always available due to the day/night, the weather and working conditions. Therefore, energy harvesting for a single energy source cannot provide a stable and continuous energy supply. Here, a multisource energy harvester based on a single material/structure (PLZT-Sb) is presented for scavenging solar, thermal, and mechanical energies simultaneously or individually. And then the output energy mathematical model is established and proved experimentally. The enhanced energy generations with the peak voltage of 1.9kV and peak current of 200nA are achieved by the unique integration of multi-effects, which can drive 139 LEDs. This work demonstrates an innovative approach for developing multisource energy harvester in a single ferroelectric material on the basis of the coupled multi-physics fields.

Twist-resilient and robust ferroelectric quantum spin Hall insulators driven by van der Waals interactions

Quantum spin Hall insulators (QSHI) have been proposed to power several applications, many of which rely on the possibility to switch on and off the non-trivial topology. Typically this control is achieved through strain or electric fields, which require energy consumption to be maintained. On the contrary, a non-volatile mechanism would be highly beneficial and could be realized through ferroelectricity if opposite polarization states are associated with different topological phases. While this is not possible in a single ferroelectric material where the two polarization states are related by inversion, the necessary asymmetry could be introduced by combining a ferroelectric layer with another two-dimensional (2D) trivial insulator. Here, by means of first-principles simulations, not only we propose that this is a promising strategy to engineer non-volatile ferroelectric control of topological order in 2D heterostructures, but also that the effect is robust and can survive up to room temperature, irrespective of the weak van der Waals coupling between the layers. We illustrate the general idea by considering a heterostructure made of a well-known ferroelectric material, In2Se3, and a suitably chosen, easily exfoliable trivial insulator, CuI. In one polarization state the system is trivial, while it becomes a QSHI with a sizable band gap upon polarization reversal. Remarkably, the topological band gap is mediated by the interlayer hybridization and allows to maximize the effect of intralayer spin-orbit coupling, promoting a robust ferroelectric topological phase that could not exist in monolayer materials and is resilient against relative orientation and lattice matching between the layers.

First-Principles Study of Polarization Behavior in BaTiO<sub>3</sub>/PbTiO<sub>3</sub> Ferroelectric Superlattices

We performed the first principle calculation to investigate the polarization behavior of BaTiO3(BTO)/PbTiO3(PTO) superlattices with a period-5 superlattice model. The results show that when BTO proportion increases, values of c/a increase and polarizations decrease. In BPT superlattices, polarization in each local layer keeps a constant value, indicating that short-period BPT superlattices can be approximately considered as a single ferroelectric material. Moreover, from analysis of the electrostatic model, we know the directions of internal electric fields in BTO and PTO layers are opposite. Internal electric field in PTO layer leads to polarization loss in this layer, but polarization in BTO layer is enhanced by internal electric field.

Kinetics of nanodomain growth in ferroelectric artificial superlattices

We report the kinetics of nanoscale domain growth in ferroelectric PbZrO3/PbTiO3 artificial superlattices. Ferroelectric superlattices behave as single ferroelectric materials with only 180° domain structure (monodomain). Domain size increases linearly with the pulse voltage, and is linearly dependent on the logarithmic value of the pulse duration. It was found that ferroelectric superlattices have a relatively high activation field for domain growth and enhanced domain stability, resulting in a long-term retention behavior of more than one month.

PYROELECTRIC PROPERTIES OF EPITAXIAL (001) BARIUM STRONTIUM TITANATE AS A FUNCTION OF SPACE CHARGE DENSITY

ABSTRACT A non-linear thermodynamic model was developed to investigate the effect of charge compensation on polarization and pyroelectric properties of graded monodomain ferroelectric multilayers. To represent charge compensation at the interfaces, a dimensionless parameter, “coupling strength,” was introduced. Heterostructures in which interfaces are perfectly insulating so that coupling strength is maximized behave as if they are a single ferroelectric material. Upon introduction of localized space charges to the interfaces, the coupling strength is decreased and ferroelectric layers behave independently of each other. Also, there exists an optimum value of the coupling strength at which average polarization of the heterostructure is maximized.

Polarization coupling in ferroelectric multilayers

A thermodynamic model was developed to understand the role of charge compensation at the interlayer interfaces in compositionally graded monodomain ferroelectric multilayers. The polarization mismatch between the ferroelectric layers generates depoling fields with the polarization in each layer varying from its bulk uncoupled value as to adapt to the electrical boundary conditions. By treating the strength of the electrostatic field as a phenomenological parameter, it is shown that if there are localized charges to compensate for the polarization mismatch and relax the depolarization fields, ferroelectric layers behave independently of each other and exhibit a dielectric response that can be described as the sum of their corresponding intrinsic uncoupled dielectric properties. For perfectly insulating heterostructures with no localized charges, the depolarization field is minimized by lowering the polarization difference between layers, yielding a ferroelectric multilayer that behaves as if it were a single ferroelectric material. There exists an optimum value of coupling strength at which average polarization of the multilayer is maximized. Furthermore, ferroelectric multilayers may display a colossal dielectric response dependant upon the interlayer electrostatic interactions.

First-principle study of ferroelectricity in PbTiO3/SrTiO3 superlattices

We performed the first-principles calculation to investigate the electronic structure and polarization behaviors in PbTiO3/SrTiO3 (PST) superlattices. The DOS (density of state) profiles show that there are strong hybridizations of atom Ti–O and Pb–O which play very important roles on ferroelectricity of the PbTiO3/SrTiO3 superlattices. Comparing to the corresponding paraelectric phase, we find the electrons of the PT (PbTiO3) layers occupy lower energy states and electrons of the ST (SrTiO3) layer occupy higher energy states. It is shown that the polarizations of the superlattices decrease with proportion of SrTiO3 increasing. The constant polarization of local layer indicates that PST superlattices with small modulation lengthen can be approximately considered as a single ferroelectric material. Furthermore, according to electrostatic model, we find that directions of internal electric fields in PT and ST layers are opposite. In PST superlattices, internal electric field in PT layer leads to the loss of polarization of this layer, but the polarization of ST layer is induced by internal electric field of this layer. Compared to the value of the polarization in bulk PbTiO3, polarization of PST is smaller.