Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Zeches, R. J.
• Rossell, M. D.
• Zhang, J. X.
• Hatt, A. J.
• He, Q.
• Yang, C.-H.
• Kumar, A.
• Wang, C. H.
• Melville, A.
• Adamo, C.
• Sheng, G.
• Chu, Y.-H.
• Ihlefeld, J. F.
• Erni, R.
• Ederer, C.
• Gopalan, V.
• Chen, L. Q.
• Schlom, D. G.
• Spaldin, N. A.
• Martin, L. W.
• Ramesh, R.

Titel

A Strain-Driven Morphotropic Phase Boundary in BiFeO3

Ist Teil von

• Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science), 2009-11, Vol.326 (5955), p.977-980

Ort / Verlag

United States: American Association for the Advancement of Science

Erscheinungsjahr

2009

Quelle

American Association for the Advancement of Science

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Piezoelectric materials, which convert mechanical to electrical energy and vice versa, are typically characterized by the intimate coexistence of two phases across a morphotropic phase boundary. Electrically switching one to the other yields large electromechanical coupling coefficients. Driven by global environmental concerns, there is currently a strong push to discover practical lead-free piezoelectrics for device engineering. Using a combination of epitaxial growth techniques in conjunction with theoretical approaches, we show the formation of a morphotropic phase boundary through epitaxial constraint in lead-free piezoelectric bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3) films. Electric field–dependent studies show that a tetragonal-like phase can be reversibly converted into a rhombohedral-like phase, accompanied by measurable displacements of the surface, making this new lead-free system of interest for probe-based data storage and actuator applications.