Mimicking Antiferroelectrics with Ferroelectric Superlattices.

Antiferroelectric oxides are promising materials for applications in high-density energy storage, solid-state cooling, and negative capacitance devices. However, the range of oxide antiferroelectrics available today is rather limited. In this work, it is demonstrated that antiferroelectric properties can be electrostatically engineered in artificially layered ferroelectric superlattices.

Liquid-Crystal-Like Dynamic Transition in Ferroelectric-Dielectric Superlattices.

Nanostructured ferroelectrics display exotic multidomain configurations resulting from the electrostatic and elastic boundary conditions they are subject to. While the ferroelectric domains appear frozen in experimental images, atomistic second-principles studies suggest that they may become spontaneously mobile upon heating, with the polar order melting in a liquidlike fashion. Here, we run molecular dynamics simulations of model systems (PbTiO_{3}/SrTiO_{3} superlattices) to study the unique features of this transformation.

Brownian Electric Bubble Quasiparticles.

Recent works on electric bubbles (including the experimental demonstration of electric skyrmions) constitute a breakthrough akin to the discovery of magnetic skyrmions some 15 years ago. So far research has focused on obtaining and visualizing these objects, which often appear to be immobile (pinned) in experiments. Thus, critical aspects of magnetic skyrmions-e.

A 2D ferroelectric vortex pattern in twisted BaTiO freestanding layers.

The wealth of complex polar topologies recently found in nanoscale ferroelectrics results from a delicate balance between the intrinsic tendency of the materials to develop a homogeneous polarization and the electric and mechanical boundary conditions imposed on them. Ferroelectric-dielectric interfaces are model systems in which polarization curling originates from open circuit-like electric boundary conditions, to avoid the build-up of polarization charges through the formation of flux-closure domains that evolve into vortex-like structures at the nanoscale level. Although ferroelectricity is known to couple strongly with strain (both homogeneous and inhomogeneous), the effect of mechanical constraints on thin-film nanoscale ferroelectrics has been comparatively less explored because of the relative paucity of strain patterns that can be implemented experimentally.

Electrically induced cancellation and inversion of piezoelectricity in ferroelectric HfZrO.

HfO-based thin films hold huge promise for integrated devices as they show full compatibility with semiconductor technologies and robust ferroelectric properties at nanometer scale. While their polarization switching behavior has been widely investigated, their electromechanical response received much less attention so far. Here, we demonstrate that piezoelectricity in HfZrO ferroelectric capacitors is not an invariable property but, in fact, can be intrinsically changed by electrical field cycling.

High-Power-Density Energy-Harvesting Devices Based on the Anomalous Nernst Effect of Co/Pt Magnetic Multilayers.

The anomalous Nernst effect (ANE) is a thermomagnetic phenomenon with potential applications in thermal energy harvesting. While many recent works studied the approaches to increase the ANE coefficient of materials, relatively little effort was devoted to increasing the power supplied by the effect. Here, we demonstrate a nanofabricated device with record power density generated by the ANE.

Giant voltage amplification from electrostatically induced incipient ferroelectric states.

Ferroelectrics subject to suitable electric boundary conditions present a steady negative capacitance response. When the ferroelectric is in a heterostructure, this behaviour yields a voltage amplification in the other elements, which experience a potential difference larger than the one applied, holding promise for low-power electronics. So far research has focused on verifying this effect and little is known about how to optimize it.

Ferroelectric/paraelectric superlattices for energy storage.

The polarization response of antiferroelectrics to electric fields is such that the materials can store large energy densities, which makes them promising candidates for energy storage applications in pulsed-power technologies. However, relatively few materials of this kind are known. Here, we consider ferroelectric/paraelectric superlattices as artificial electrostatically engineered antiferroelectrics.

Piezoelectricity in hafnia.

Because of its compatibility with semiconductor-based technologies, hafnia (HfO) is today's most promising ferroelectric material for applications in electronics. Yet, knowledge on the ferroic and electromechanical response properties of this all-important compound is still lacking. Interestingly, HfO has recently been predicted to display a negative longitudinal piezoelectric effect, which sets it apart from classic ferroelectrics (e.

Wake-up Free Ferroelectric Rhombohedral Phase in Epitaxially Strained ZrO Thin Films.

Zirconia- and hafnia-based thin films have attracted tremendous attention in the past decade because of their unexpected ferroelectric behavior at the nanoscale, which enables the downscaling of ferroelectric devices. The present work reports an unprecedented ferroelectric rhombohedral phase of ZrO that can be achieved in thin films grown directly on (111)-Nb:SrTiO substrates by ion-beam sputtering. Structural and ferroelectric characterizations reveal (111)-oriented ZrO films under epitaxial compressive strain exhibiting switchable ferroelectric polarization of about 20.

Giant Thermal Transport Tuning at a Metal/Ferroelectric Interface.

Interfacial thermal transport plays a prominent role in the thermal management of nanoscale objects and is of fundamental importance for basic research and nanodevices. At metal/insulator interfaces, a configuration commonly found in electronic devices, heat transport strongly depends upon the effective energy transfer from thermalized electrons in the metal to the phonons in the insulator. However, the mechanism of interfacial electron-phonon coupling and thermal transport at metal/insulator interfaces is not well understood.

Archetypal Soft-Mode-Driven Antipolar Transition in Francisite Cu_{3}Bi(SeO_{3})_{2}O_{2}Cl.

Model materials are precious test cases for elementary theories and provide building blocks for the understanding of more complex cases. Here, we describe the lattice dynamics of the structural phase transition in francisite Cu_{3}Bi(SeO_{3})_{2}O_{2}Cl at 115 K and show that it provides a rare archetype of a transition driven by a soft antipolar phonon mode. In the high-symmetry phase at high temperatures, the soft mode is found at (0,0,0.

Anisotropic sensor and memory device with a ferromagnetic tunnel barrier as the only magnetic element.

Multiple spin functionalities are probed on Pt/LaCoMnO/Nb:SrTiO, a device composed by a ferromagnetic insulating barrier sandwiched between non-magnetic electrodes. Uniquely, LaCoMnO thin films present strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy of magnetocrystalline origin, property of major interest for spintronics. The junction has an estimated spin-filtering efficiency of 99.

Tunable Dirac Electron and Hole Self-Doping of Topological Insulators Induced by Stacking Defects.

Via density functional theory based calculations we show that self-doping of the surface Dirac cones in three-dimensional Bi2X3 (X = Se, Te) topological insulators can be tuned by controlling the sequence of stacking defects in the crystal. Twin boundaries inside the Bi2X3 bulk drive either n- or p-type self-doping of the (0001) topological surface states, depending on the precise orientation of the twin. The surface doping may achieve values up to 300 meV and can be controlled by the number of defects and their relative position with respect to the surface.