Unlocking Cryogenic Energy Storage by Constructing Dipole Glass with Unit-cell-level Polar Disorder
Abstract
Cryogenic energy storage is vital for frontier technologies including deep-space exploration and quantum computing, yet conventional electrochemical energy systems fail below ~230 K due to frozen ion migration. While relaxor-based dielectric capacitors provide high efficiency at room temperature, the intrinsic freezing/growth of polar nanodomains at extended cryogenic regime limits their applications with deteriorated hysteresis losses. Here, we realize superior cryogenic energy-storage performance by designing unit-cell-level disordered dipole-glass state in Pb0.6Sr0.4ZrO3 thin films with composition near antiferroelectric-paraelectric phase boundary. The antiferroelectric-derived dipole-glass introduces enhanced unit-cell-level complexity of dipole interaction that suppresses long-range ferroelectric order. This enables ultralow-hysteresis operation (efficiency > 88%) down to 4 K, delivering record-high energy density (211 J/cm3) at 9 MV/cm, stability over 108 charge/discharge cycles and microsecond-scale charge/discharge capability. This work establishes a dipole-glass paradigm for cryogenic dielectric capacitors, opening a new avenue to highly-efficient energy-storage systems with broad applications in frontier nanoelectronics.
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