Ideal antiferroelectricity with large digital electrostrain in PbZrO3 epitaxial thin films
Antiferroelectrics exhibit reversible antipolar-polar phase transitions under electric fields, yielding large electrostrain suitable for electromechanical devices. Nevertheless, in thin-film form, the antiferroelectric behavior is often obscured by competing ferroic orders, resulting in slanted hysteresis loops with undesired remnant polarization, subsequently posing challenges in obtaining ideal antiferroelectricity and understanding their intrinsic electrical behavior. Here, atomistic models for controllable antiferroelectric-ferroelectric phase transition pathways are unveiled along specific crystallographic directions. Guided by the anisotropic phase transition and orientation design, we achieved ideal antiferroelectricity with square double hysteresis loop, large saturated polarization (~60 μC/cm<sup>2</sup>), near-zero remnant polarization, fast response time (~75 ns), and near-fatigue-free performance (~10<sup>10</sup> cycles) in (111)<sub>P</sub>-oriented PbZrO<sub>3</sub> epitaxial thin films. Moreover, a bipolar and frequency-independent digital electrostrain (~0.83%) was demonstrated in this architype antiferroelectric system. In-situ X-ray diffraction studies further reveal that the large digital electrostrain results from an intrinsic field-induced antiferroelectric-ferroelectric structural transition. This work demonstrates the anisotropic phase transition mechanism and ideal antiferroelectricity with large digital electrostrain in antiferroelectric thin films, offering a new avenue for applications of antiferroelectricity in nanoelectromechanical systems.
Authors
- Chao Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7173-9636)
- Yongqi Dong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9945-5037)
- Qibin Zeng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9307-0830)
- Shiqing Deng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7016-4084)
- Sujit Das (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9823-0207)
- Ningbo Fan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6934-6339)
- Huajun Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0540-6486)
- Zhenlin Luo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7196-6537)
- Yangyang Si (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-7770-4210)
- Zuhuang Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1912-6490)
- L. Bellaïche (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6181-2024)
- Bin Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0107-0727)
- Lü You (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3058-2884)
- Yimei Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1638-7217)
- Zhen Ye (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0687-8901)
- Yijie Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6188-8152)
Institutions
- Agency for Science, Technology and Research (SG)
- University of Science and Technology of China (CN)
- Tel Aviv University (IL)
- National University of Singapore (SG)
- Brookhaven National Laboratory (US)
- Harbin Institute of Technology (CN)
- Soochow University (CN)
- Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (SG)
- National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (CN)
- Indian Institute of Science Bangalore (IN)
- University of Arkansas at Fayetteville (US)
- University of Science and Technology Beijing (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-05-07
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-59598-1
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Ferroelectric and Piezoelectric Materials
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.62
Funders
- U.S. Department of Defense
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Salt Science Research Foundation
- National Research Foundation
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions
- National Key Research and Development Program of China
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities