Stabilization of highly polarized PbTiO[subscript 3] nanoscale capacitors due to in-plane symmetry breaking at the interface

Stable ferroelectric (FE) phases in nanometer-thick films would enable ultra-high density and fast FE field effect transistors (FeFETs), and the stability of ferroelectricity in ultrathin films has been under intense theoretical and experimental investigation. Here we predict, using density function...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Polanco, Miguel Angel Mendez, Grinberg, Ilya, Kolpak, Alexie M., Levchenko, Sergey V., Pynn, Christopher, Rappe, Andrew M.
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: American Physical Society 2012
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/72409
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4347-0139
Description
Summary:Stable ferroelectric (FE) phases in nanometer-thick films would enable ultra-high density and fast FE field effect transistors (FeFETs), and the stability of ferroelectricity in ultrathin films has been under intense theoretical and experimental investigation. Here we predict, using density functional theory calculations, that the low-energy epitaxial PbTiO3 (001)/Pt interface strengthens the electrode-oxide bonds by breaking in-plane symmetry and stabilizes a ground state with enhanced polarization in subnanometer oxide films, with no critical-size limit. Additionally, we show that such enhancement is related to large work function differences between the P[superscript −] and P[superscript +] PbTiO[subscript 3] surfaces, which gives rise to a net polarizing field in the oxide.