Abstract
Over decades of effort, Investigations of the intrinsic phase transition behavior of nanoscale ferroelectric structures have been greatly complicated by materials processing variations and by the common and uncontrolled occurrence of spacecharge, which interacts directly with the polarization and can obscure fundamental behavior. These challenges have largely been overcome, and great progress in understanding the details of this class of phase transitions has been made, largely based on advances in the growth of high-quality, epitaxial ferroelectric films and in the theory and simulation of ferroelectricity. Here we will discuss recent progress In understanding the ferroelectric phase transition in a particular class of model systems: nanoscale perovskite thin-film heterostructures. The outlook for ferroelectric technology based on these results is promising, and extensions to laterally confined nanostructures will be described.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 832-837 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | MRS Bulletin |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue number | 11 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 2009 |
Funding
Work at Argonne National Laboratory and use of the Center for Nanoscale Materials and Advanced Photon Source were supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. Stimulating interactions with G.B. Stephenson, J.A. Eastman, and P.H. Fuoss of Argonne National Laboratory and Prof. Carol Thompson of Northern Illinois University have been indispensible in formulating the concepts discussed here and are very gratefully acknowledged.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Office of Basic Energy Sciences | |
| U.S. Department of Energy | |
| Office of Science | |
| Argonne National Laboratory |