English

Enhancing piezoelectricity through polarization-strain coupling in ferroelectric superlattices

Materials Science 2012-03-12 v2

Abstract

Short period ferroelectric/ferroelectric BaTiO3 (BTO)/PbTiO3 (PTO) superlattices are studied using density functional theory. Contrary to the trends in paraelectric/ferroelectric superlattices the polarization remains nearly constant for PTO concentrations below 50%. In addition, a significant decrease in the c/a ratio below the PTO values were observed. Using a superlattice effective Hamiltonian we predict an enhancement in the d33 piezoelectric coefficient peaking at ~75% PTO concentration due to the different polarization-strain coupling in PTO and BTO layers. Further analysis reveals that these trends are bulk properties which are a consequence of the reduced PP brought about by the polarization saturation in the BTO layers.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0901.0896,
  title  = {Enhancing piezoelectricity through polarization-strain coupling in ferroelectric superlattices},
  author = {Valentino R. Cooper and Karin M. Rabe},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0901.0896},
  year   = {2012}
}