Appearance of ferroelectricity in thin films of incipient ferroelectric

Abstract

The consideration of size-induced ferroelectric-paraelectric phase transition for conventional and incipient ferroelectrics thin films with perovskite structure was carried out in phenomenological theory framework of Ginsburg-Landau-Devonshire. The more general form of surface free energy expansion that includes intrinsic surface stress tensor, surface piezoelectric effect and electrostriction as well as quadratic and quartic powers of surface polarization has been considered. The analytical expressions for thickness dependence of transition temperature was derived both for the conventional and incipient ferroelectrics. It was shown that although there is no ferroelectricity in the bulk incipient ferroelectrics it appears in thin film for the negative extrapolation length that is realized e.g. at positive surface stress coefficient and negative or zero misfit strain. In our consideration we came to the conclusion about thickness induced ferroelectricity in incipient ferroelectrics KTaO3 at room temperature for the thin enough films. The similar surface effects can influence strongly on the phase transitions in the thin films of another incipient ferroelectrics, SrTiO3.