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FM: Fachverband Funktionsmaterialien

FM 18: German-French Focus Session: (Anti)ferroic states – ferroelectrics, ferroelastics and antiferroelectrics II

FM 18.1: Hauptvortrag

Donnerstag, 12. März 2026, 10:15–10:45, BEY/0138

Stabilizing antiferroelectricity in PbZrO3 thin films using epitaxial tensile strain — •Vincent Garcia — Laboratoire Albert Fert, CNRS, Thales, Univ. Paris-Saclay, France

The antiferroelectric nature of lead zirconate, the historical and most studied antiferroelectric material, has recently been challenged. Progress in atomic-level characterization using aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) has revealed the complex nature of polar textures in PbZrO3. In single crystals, ferrielectric phases have been detected, while in PbZrO3 epitaxial films, thickness reduction engenders competition among antiferroelectric, ferrielectric and ferroelectric phases. All studies so far on PbZrO3 films have utilized commercially-available oxide single crystals with large compressive lattice mismatch, causing the films to undergo strain relaxation within a few nanometres. Interestingly, first principles calculations have predicted that tensile strain can stabilize antiferroelectricity down to the nanometre scale. Here we use tensile strain imposed by artificial substrates of LaLuO3 to stabilize a pure antiferroelectric phase in epitaxial ultrathin films of PbZrO3. Sharp double hysteresis loops of polarization vs electric field in these PbZrO3-based capacitors show zero remanent polarization, and atomic scale mapping of polar displacements using STEM reveals the characteristic antipolar pattern of the Pbam phase in film thicknesses down to 9 nanometres. These results highlight the critical role of coherent epitaxial strain in the phase stability of PbZrO3.

Keywords: Antiferroelectric; PbZrO3; Epitaxy; Antipolar; Ultrathin films