Related papers: The Classical-to-Quantum Crossover in strain-induc…
Advances in complex oxide heteroepitaxy have highlighted the enormous potential of utilizing strain engineering via lattice mismatch to control ferroelectricity in thin-film heterostructures. This approach, however, lacks the ability to…
SrTiO3 is an incipient ferroelectric that is believed to exhibit a prototype displacive, soft mode ferroelectric transition when subjected to mechanical stress or alloying. We use high-angle annular dark-field imaging in scanning…
Ferroelectric materials are a class of dielectrics that exhibit spontaneous polarization which can be reversed under an external electric field. The emergence of ferroelectric order in incipient ferroelectrics is a topic of considerable…
We present an inexpensive first-principles approach for describing quantum paraelectricity that combines density functional theory (DFT) treatment of the electronic subsystem with quantum mechanical treatment of the ions through solution of…
Materials tuned to the neighbourhood of a zero temperature phase transition often show the emergence of novel quantum phenomena. Much of the effort to study these new effects, like the breakdown of the conventional Fermi-liquid theory of…
SrTiO$_{3}$, a quantum paraelectric, becomes a metal with a superconducting instability after removal of an extremely small number of oxygen atoms. It turns into a ferroelectric upon substitution of a tiny fraction of strontium atoms with…
Here a recently observed weak first order transition in doped SrTiO3 is argued to be a consequence of the coupling between strain and order parameter fluctuations. Starting with a semi-microscopic action, and using renormalization group…
Understanding ferroelectricity is of both fundamental and technological importance to further stimulate the development of new materials designs and manipulations. Here, we perform an in-depth first-principle study on the well-known…
We demonstrate how the quantum paraelectric ground state of SrTiO$_3$ can be accessed via a microscopic $ab~initio$ approach based on density functional theory. At low temperature the quantum fluctuations are strong enough to stabilize the…
We identify a first-order, isosymmetric transition between a ferrielectric (FiE) and ferroelectric (FE) state in $A$-site ordered LaScO$_{3}$/BiScO$_{3}$ and LaInO$_{3}$/BiInO$_{3}$ superlattices. Such a previously unreported ferroic…
Valley lines on total-energy surfaces for the zone-center distortions of free-standing and in-plane strained SrTiO3 are investigated with a newly developed first-principles structure optimization technique [Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. vol.43…
The increasing availability of a variety of two-dimensional materials has generated enormous growth in the field of nanoengineering and nanomechanics. Recent developments in thin film synthesis have enabled the fabrication of freestanding…
A theory to describe the dielectric anomalies and the ferroelectric phase transition induced by oxygen isotope replacement in SrTiO$_3$ is developed. The proposed model gives consistent explanation between apparently contradictory…
Controlling magnetism by using electric fields is a goal of research towards novel spintronic devices and future nano-electronics. For this reason, multiferroic heterostructures attract much interest. Here we provide experimental evidence,…
SrTiO$_3$ is an incipient ferroelectric on the verge of a polar instability, which is avoided at low temperatures by quantum fluctuations. Within this unusual quantum paraelectric phase, superconductivity persists despite extremely dilute…
Piezoelectricity is inherent only in noncentrosymmetric materials, but a piezoelectric response can also be obtained in centrosymmetric crystals if subjected to inhomogeneous deformation. This phenomenon, known as flexoelectricity, affects…
Materials that can produce large controllable strains are widely used in shape memory devices, actuators and sensors. Great efforts have been made to improve the strain outputs of various material systems. Among them, ferroelastic…
We use first principles density functional theory calculations to investigate the effect of biaxial strain in the low-temperature structural and ferroelectric properties of [111]-oriented SrTiO$_3$. We find that [111] biaxial strain,…
SrTiO$_3$ is a unique example of a system which exhibits both quantum paraelectricity and superconductivity. Thus, it is expected that the superconducting state is closely related to the intrinsic ferroelectric instability. Indeed, recent…
Highly-crystalline ferroelectric oxides integrated on Si hold great promise for energy-efficient memory and logic technologies. Exploiting epitaxial strain engineering in these materials is, however, severely hampered on Si, where the large…