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Tunable electrocaloric effect in lead scandium tantalate through calcium doping

Materials Science 2026-04-21 v2

Abstract

State-of-the-art electrocaloric cooling prototypes rely on the conventional electrocaloric effect of ferroelectric lead scandium tantalate (PbSc0.5Ta0.5O3, PST), which peaks near room temperature. Here, we demonstrate that A-site calcium doping in highly ordered PST modifies its phase transitions and enables precise tuning of the electrocaloric response. The transition temperature shifts down to 258 K and up to 319 K, depending on Ca concentration. Calorimetry under electric field, electrical polarization loops, and piezoresponse force microscopy reveal the emergence of an intermediate antiferroelectric phase stabilized for Ca \geq 2\%. These results are supported by first-principles calculations. We observe a conventional electrocaloric effect for Ca \leq 2\% and an inverse electrocaloric effect at higher doping (\geq 2\%). Under an applied field of 110 kV cm1^{-1}, Ca-doped PST exhibits an adiabatic temperature change of 2 K over a range from 263 K to 353 K. Such Ca-doped PST compounds could be used to expand the temperature range of PST below the freezing point of water. Our results offer a pathway to cascaded electrocaloric cooling devices with extended operating spans.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2502.02402,
  title  = {Tunable electrocaloric effect in lead scandium tantalate through calcium doping},
  author = {Youri Nouchokgwe and Natalya S. Fedorova and Pranab Biswas and Veronika Kovacova and Ivana Gorican and Silvo Drmovsek and Binayak Mukherjee and Uros Prah and Guillaume F. Nataf and Torsten Granzow and Mael Guennou and Hana Ursic and Jorge Iniguez-Gonzalez and Emmanuel Defay},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.02402},
  year   = {2026}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T21:32:15.797Z