TY - JOUR
T1 - Electric-field-induced antiferroelectric to ferroelectric phase transition in polycrystalline NaNbO3
AU - Zhang, Mao Hua
AU - Fulanović, Lovro
AU - Egert, Sonja
AU - Ding, Hui
AU - Groszewicz, Pedro B.
AU - Kleebe, Hans Joachim
AU - Molina-Luna, Leopoldo
AU - Koruza, Jurij
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Hessian State Ministry for Higher Education, Research and the Arts under the LOEWE collaborative project “FLAME”. The authors acknowledge financial support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) through project grant No. BU 911/28–1. J.K. and P.B.G. are grateful for receiving the young researcher support from the Profile Area “From Material to Product Innovation” of the TU Darmstadt. H. D. and L.M.-L. acknowledge financial support from the European Research Council (ERC) “Horizon 2020″ Program under Grant No. 805359‐FOXON. The authors are thankful to Binxiang Huang for providing the lead-based reference sample.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Hessian State Ministry for Higher Education, Research and the Arts under the LOEWE collaborative project “FLAME”. The authors acknowledge financial support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) through project grant No. BU 911/28–1. J.K. and P.B.G. are grateful for receiving the young researcher support from the Profile Area “From Material to Product Innovation” of the TU Darmstadt. H. D. and L.M.-L. acknowledge financial support from the European Research Council (ERC) “Horizon 2020″ Program under Grant No. 805359‐FOXON. The authors are thankful to Binxiang Huang for providing the lead-based reference sample.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020
PY - 2020/11
Y1 - 2020/11
N2 - Electric-field-induced phase transitions are the most important characteristics of antiferroelectric materials. However, in several prototype antiferroelectrics, these transitions are irreversible and the origin of this behavior is poorly understood. This prevents their widespread use, for example, in energy storage and memory applications. Here, we investigated the antiferroelectric-ferroelectric phase transitions in polycrystalline NaNbO3, a material recently suggested as the basis for lead-free antiferroelectrics with high energy storage densities. An irreversible transition from the antiferroelectric state to a new state showing macroscopic piezoelectricity (d33=35 pC/N) was induced at 11.6 kV/mm (room temperature, 1 Hz), accompanied by a 33% drop in permittivity. Microscopically, a change from a translational antiferroelectric domain structure to a wedge-shaped ferroelectric domain structure was observed using transmission electron microscopy. 23Na solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance allowed for a detailed study of the local structure and revealed pure antiferroelectric and coexisting antiferroelectric/ferroelectric nature of the samples before and after the application of an electric field, respectively. Interestingly, despite the large electric fields applied, only 50±5% of the material underwent the antiferroelectric-ferroelectric phase transition, which was related to the material´s microstructure. The temperature- and frequency-dependence of the phase transition was studied and compared to the behavior observed in lead-based antiferroelectric systems.
AB - Electric-field-induced phase transitions are the most important characteristics of antiferroelectric materials. However, in several prototype antiferroelectrics, these transitions are irreversible and the origin of this behavior is poorly understood. This prevents their widespread use, for example, in energy storage and memory applications. Here, we investigated the antiferroelectric-ferroelectric phase transitions in polycrystalline NaNbO3, a material recently suggested as the basis for lead-free antiferroelectrics with high energy storage densities. An irreversible transition from the antiferroelectric state to a new state showing macroscopic piezoelectricity (d33=35 pC/N) was induced at 11.6 kV/mm (room temperature, 1 Hz), accompanied by a 33% drop in permittivity. Microscopically, a change from a translational antiferroelectric domain structure to a wedge-shaped ferroelectric domain structure was observed using transmission electron microscopy. 23Na solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance allowed for a detailed study of the local structure and revealed pure antiferroelectric and coexisting antiferroelectric/ferroelectric nature of the samples before and after the application of an electric field, respectively. Interestingly, despite the large electric fields applied, only 50±5% of the material underwent the antiferroelectric-ferroelectric phase transition, which was related to the material´s microstructure. The temperature- and frequency-dependence of the phase transition was studied and compared to the behavior observed in lead-based antiferroelectric systems.
KW - Antiferroelectric
KW - Lead free
KW - NaNbO
KW - Phase transition
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85090414676&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.actamat.2020.09.002
DO - 10.1016/j.actamat.2020.09.002
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85090414676
SN - 1359-6454
VL - 200
SP - 127
EP - 135
JO - Acta Materialia
JF - Acta Materialia
ER -