Search

The crystal structure and ferroelectric properties of epitaxial ZrO2 films ranging from 7 to 42 nm thickness grown on La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 buffered (110)‐oriented SrTiO3 substrate are reported. By employing X‐ray diffraction, a tetragonal phase (t‐phase) at all investigated thicknesses, with slight in‐plane strain due to the substrate in the thinnest films, is confirmed. Further confirmation of the t‐phase is obtained through infrared absorption spectroscopy with synchrotron light, performed on ZrO2 membrane transferred onto a high resistive silicon substrate. Up to a thickness of 31 nm, the ZrO2 epitaxial films exhibit ferroelectric behavior, at variance with the antiferroelectric behavior reported previously for the t‐phase in polycrystalline films. However, the ferroelectricity is found here to diminish with increasing film thickness, with a polarization of 13 µC cm−2 and down to 1 µC cm−2 for 7 and 31 nm thick ZrO2 films, respectively. Given that the t‐phase is nonpolar, the observations emphasize the influence of external factors, in promoting polarization in t‐ZrO2 thin films. These findings provide new insights into the ferroelectric properties and structure of ZrO2 thin films, and open up new directions to investigate the origin of ferroelectricity in ZrO2 and to optimize this material for future applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hard X‐ray nanodiffraction provides a unique nondestructive technique to quantify local strain and structural inhomogeneities at nanometer length scales. However, sample mosaicity and phase separation can result in a complex diffraction pattern that can make it challenging to quantify nanoscale structural distortions. In this work, a k‐means clustering algorithm was utilized to identify local maxima of intensity by partitioning diffraction data in a three‐dimensional feature space of detector coordinates and intensity. This technique has been applied to X‐ray nanodiffraction measurements of a patterned ferroelectric PbZr0.2Ti0.8O3 sample. The analysis reveals the presence of two phases in the sample with different lattice parameters. A highly heterogeneous distribution of lattice parameters with a variation of 0.02 Å was also observed within one ferroelectric domain. This approach provides a nanoscale survey of subtle structural distortions as well as phase separation in ferroelectric domains in a patterned sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ferroelectric materials exhibit coupled degrees of freedom and possess a switchable electric polarization coupled to strain, making them good piezoelectrics and enabling numerous devices including nonvolatile memories, actuators, and sensors. Moreover, novel photovoltaic effects are encountered through the interplay of electric polarization with the material optical properties. Consequently, light‐induced deformation in ferroelectrics, or photostriction, combining photovoltaic and converse piezoelectric effects, is under investigation in the quest for multifunctional materials. Using time‐resolved X‐ray diffraction, the first control of ultrafast photoinduced strain is demonstrated through in situ tuning of the polarization state in ferroelectric‐based devices. Both the magnitude and the sign of the photoinduced strain strongly depend on the transient photoinduced change of the internal electric field in the ferroelectric layer, and can be actively engineered to achieve two distinct remanent photostrictive responses. These results provide fundamental insight into light–matter interaction in ferroelectrics and exciting new avenues for materials functionality engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]