Liberating a hidden antiferroelectric phase with interfacial electrostatic engineering
Julia A. Mundy, Bastien F. Grosso, Colin Heikes, Dan Ferenc Segedin, Zhe Wang, Yu‐Tsun Shao, Cheng Dai, Berit H. Goodge, Quintin N. Meier, Christopher T. Nelson, Bhagwati Prasad, Fei Xue, Steffen Ganschow, David A. Muller, Lena F. Kourkoutis, Long‐Qing Chen, William Ratcliff, Nicola A. Spaldin, R. Ramesh, Darrell G. Schlom
Abstract
Antiferroelectric materials have seen a resurgence of interest because of proposed applications in a number of energy-efficient technologies. Unfortunately, relatively few families of antiferroelectric materials have been identified, precluding many proposed applications. Here, we propose a design strategy for the construction of antiferroelectric materials using interfacial electrostatic engineering. We begin with a ferroelectric material with one of the highest known bulk polarizations, BiFeO 3 . By confining thin layers of BiFeO 3 in a dielectric matrix, we show that a metastable antiferroelectric structure can be induced. Application of an electric field reversibly switches between this new phase and a ferroelectric state. The use of electrostatic confinement provides an untapped pathway for the design of engineered antiferroelectric materials with large and potentially coupled responses.