Published February 3, 2014 | Version v1
Journal article

Electric field induced metastable ferroelectric phase and its behavior in (Pb, La)(Zr, Sn, Ti)O3 antiferroelectric single crystal near morphotropic phase boundary

  • 1. Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China)
  • 2. Materials Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802 (United States)
  • 3. Condensed Matter Science and Technology Institute, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, Heilongjiang 150080 (China)
  • 4. State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China)

Description

Antiferroelectric (AFE) (Pb, La)(Zr, Sn, Ti)O3 (PLZST) single crystal with composition near morphotropic phase boundary has been grown and studied. X-ray diffraction analysis and electrical properties reveal coexistence of antiferroelectric/ferroelectric (FE) phases, with the AFE phase dominated at room temperature. Temperature-dependent polarization and strain measurements indicate that the AFE phase can be induced into a metastable FE phase by electric field. The FE phase can be maintained in a wide temperature range above room temperature and recovers to AFE phase around a critical temperature of 90 °C, accompanied with remarkable change in field-induced strain. The strain at 90 °C (∼0.50%) is ten times larger than that at room temperature (∼0.04%), which makes the PLZST single crystal a promising candidate for thermal switch and actuator application

Additional details

Identifiers

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Applied Physics Letters
Journal Volume
104
Journal Issue
5
Journal Page Range
p. 052912-052912.4
ISSN
0003-6951
CODEN
APPLAB

Optional Information

Notes
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