Thickness-driven antiferroelectric-to-ferroelectric phase transition of thin PbZrO_3 layers in epitaxial PbZrO_3/Pb(Zr_(0.8)Ti_(0.2))O_3 multilayers

摘要

Epitaxial antiferroelectric/ferroelectric PbZrO_3/PbZr_(0.8)Ti_(0.2)O_3 multilayers were grown on SrRuO_3-electroded SrTiO_3(100) substrates by pulsed laser deposition. Polarization-field and switching current-voltage curves show a mixed antiferroelectric-ferroelectric behavior of the multilayers with an individual layer thickness above 10 nm, whereas below 10 nm the multilayers show only ferroelectric behavior. Clearly the PbZrO_3 layers thinner than 10 nm experienced a transition into the ferroelectric state. X-ray diffraction reciprocal space mapping showed a corresponding orthorhombic-to-rhombohedral transition of the PbZrO_3 layers. The observations are discussed in terms of the influence of strain.