Related papers: Polymorphism in Bi-based perovskite oxides: a firs…
Low-dimensional ferroelectricity and polar materials have attracted considerable attentions for their fascinating physics and potential applications. Based on first-principles calculations, here we investigate the stacking modes and polar…
Antiferroelectrics have potential applications in energy conversion and storage, but are scarce, particularly among oxides that otherwise display rich ferroic behaviours. Are we overlooking potential antiferroelectrics, simply because we…
Ferroelectric films usually have phase states and physical properties very different from those of bulk ferroelectrics. Here we propose free-standing ferroelectric-elastic multilayers as a bridge between these two material systems. Using a…
We use a combination of symmetry arguments and first-principles calculations to explore the connection between structural distortions and ferroelectricity in the perovskite family of materials. We explain the role of octahedral rotations in…
Our first-principles results show that geometric frustration can be induced in thin films of multiferroic BiFeO3. We find that competing magnetic interactions occur in the so-called super-tetragonal phase of this material, which can be…
We have synthesized and characterized laser-deposited film samples of perovskite BaCrO_{3}, a missing member of the perovskite-chromate family. The BaCrO_{3} films have a substantially larger lattice constant than other chromates, are…
Ferroelectric switching in BiFeO$_3$ multiferroic thin films with intrinsic ``stripe-like'' and ``bubble-like'' polydomain configurations was studied by piezoresponse force microscopy. Using the local electric field applied by a scanning…
Entropy is a critical, but often overlooked, factor in determining the relative stabilities of crystal phases. The importance of entropy is most pronounced in softer materials, where small changes in free energy can drive phase transitions,…
Finite size effects in ferroelectric thin films have been probed in a series of epitaxial perovskite c-axis oriented PbTiO3 films grown on thin La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 epitaxial electrodes. The film thickness ranges from 480 down to 28 A (7 unit…
Some of the Multiferroics [1] form a rare class of materials that exhibit magnetoelectric coupling arising from the coexistence of ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity, with potential for many technological applications.[2,3] Over the last…
We have studied ab initio the phase transition in PbZrO3, a perovskite oxide usually presented as the prototypic anti-ferroelectric material. Our work reveals the crucial role that anti-ferrodistortive modes -- involving concerted rotations…
Intrinsic polar metals are rare, especially in oxides, because free electrons screen electric fields in a metal and eliminate the internal dipoles that are needed to break inversion symmetry. Here we use first-principles high-throughput…
BiFeO3 is the most famous multiferroic material, but its G-type antiferromagnetism is highly desirable to be replaced by strong macroscopic magnetism beyond room temperature. Here we obtain double perovskite Bi2FeMoO6 with R3 (#146) space…
The oxide heterostructure [(YFeO$_3$)$_5$(LaFeO$_3$)$_5$]$_{40}$, which is magnetically ordered and piezoelectric at room temperature, has been constructed from two weak ferromagnetic AFeO$_3$ perovskites with different A cations using…
First-principles total-energy calculations are carried out for (001) surfaces of the cubic perovskite ATiO3 compounds PbTiO3, BaTiO3, and SrTiO3. Both AO-terminated and TiO2-terminated surfaces are considered, and fully-relaxed atomic…
Double perovskite Bi$_2$FeCrO$_6$, related with BiFeO$_3$, is very interesting because strong ferroelectricity and high magnetic Curie temperature beyond room temperature are observed in it. However, existing density-functional-theory (DFT)…
Strain is a leading candidate for controlling magnetoelectric coupling in multiferroics. Here, we use x-ray diffraction to study the coupling between magnetic order and structural distortion in epitaxial films of the orthorhombic (o-)…
We report calculations indicating that amorphous RAO$_3$ oxides, with R and A trivalent cations, have approximately the same static dielectric constant as their perovskite crystal phase. The effect is due to the disorder-activated polar…
Main physical characteristics, crystal, magnetic and electronic structures, of cerium-based perovskites CeTmO3 [Tm3+ = Sc, Ti, V] are systematically investigated via the first-principles computations. Full-potential linear augmented…
Using first-principles calculations, we estimated the impact of large applied electric E fields on the structural, dielectric, and ferroelectric properties of typical ferroelectrics. At large fields, the structural parameters change…