A Roadmap for Ferroelectric-Antiferroelectric Phase Transition.

Antiferroelectric materials have shown great potential in electronic devices benefiting from the reversible phase transition between ferroelectric and antiferroelectric phases. Understanding the dipole arrangements and clear phase transition pathways is crucial for design of antiferroelectric materials-based energy storage and conversion devices. However, the specific phase transition details remain largely unclear and even controversial to date.

Large Polarization Near 50 μC/cm in a Single Unit Cell Layer SrTiO.

The generally nonpolar SrTiO has attracted more attention recently because of its possibly induced novel polar states and related paraelectric-ferroelectric phase transitions. By using controlled pulsed laser deposition, high-quality, ultrathin, and strained SrTiO layers were obtained. Here, transmission electron microscopy and theoretical simulations have unveiled highly polar states in SrTiO films even down to one unit cell at room temperature, which were stabilized in the PbTiO/SrTiO/PbTiO sandwich structures by in-plane tensile strain and interfacial coupling, as evidenced by large tetragonality (∼1.

Atomic Insight into the Successive Antiferroelectric-Ferroelectric Phase Transition in Antiferroelectric Oxides.

Antiferroelectrics characterized by voltage-driven reversible transitions between antiparallel and parallel polarity are promising for cutting-edge electronic and electrical power applications. Wide-ranging explorations revealing the macroscopic performances and microstructural characteristics of typical antiferroelectric systems have been conducted. However, the underlying mechanism has not yet been fully unraveled, which depends largely on the atomistic processes.