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Register a new userSpectroscopic mapping of local structural distortions in ferroelectric PbTiO3/SrTiO3 superlattices at the unit-cell scale
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Added by
Almudena Torres-Pardo
Publication date
2011
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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The local structural distortions in polydomain ferroelectric PbTiO3/SrTiO3 superlattices are investigated by means of high spatial and energy resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy combined with high angle annular dark field imaging. Local structural variations across the interfaces have been identified with unit cell resolution through the analysis of the energy loss near edge structure of the Ti-L2,3 and O-K edges. Ab-initio and multiplet calculations of the Ti-L2,3 edges provide unambiguous evidence for an inhomogeneous polarization profile associated with the observed structural distortions across the superlattice.
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We analyze the basic structural units of simple reconstructions of the (111) surface of SrTiO3 using density functional calculations. The prime focus is to answer three questions: what is the most appropriate functional to use; how accurate are the energies; what are the dominant low-energy structures and where do they lie on the surface phase diagram. Using test calculations of representative small molecules we compare conventional GGA with higher-order methods such as the TPSS meta-GGA and on-site hybrid methods PBE0 and TPSSh, the later being the most accurate. There are large effects due to reduction of the metal d oxygen sp hybridization when using the hybrid methods which are equivalent to a dynamical GGA+U, which leads to rather substantial improvements in the atomization energies of simple calibration molecules, even though the d-electron density for titanium compounds is rather small. By comparing the errors of the different methods we are able to generate an estimate of the theoretical error, which is about 0.25eV per 1x1 unit cell, with changes of 0.5-1.0 eV per 1x1 cell with the more accurate method relative to conventional GGA. An analysis of the plausible structures reveals an unusual low-energy TiO2-rich configuration with an unexpected distorted trigonal biprismatic structure. This structure can act as a template for layers of either TiO or Ti2O3, consistent with experimental results as well as, in principle, Magnelli phases. The results also suggest that both the fracture surface and the stoichiometric SrTiO3 (111) surface should spontaneously disproportionate into SrO and TiO2 rich domains, and show that there are still surprises to be found for polar oxide surfaces.
First-principles density functional calculations are performed to investigate the interplay between inplane strains and interface effects in 1by1 PbTiO3/SrTiO3 and BaTiO3/SrTiO3 superlattices of tetragonal symmetry. One particular emphasis of this study is to conduct side-by-side comparisons on various ferroelectric properties in short-period superlattices and in constituent bulk materials, which turns out to be rather useful in terms of obtaining valuable insight into the different physics when ferroelectric bulks form superlattices. The various properties that are studied in this work include the equilibrium structure, strain dependence of mixing energy, microscopic ferroelectric off-center displacements, macroscopic polarization, piezoelectric coeffcients, effective charges, and the recently formulated k-dependent polarization dispersion structure. The details of our findings are rather lengthy, and are summarized in Sec. IV.
We report on quantification and elastic strain mapping in two artificial BaZrO3/BaTiO3 (BZ/BT) superlattices having periods of 6.6 nm and 11 nm respectively, grown on (001) SrTiO3 single crystal substrate by pulsed laser deposition technique. The methodology consists of a combination of high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy and nanobeam electron diffraction associated with dedicated algorithm for diffraction patterns processing originally developed for semiconductors to record the strains at atomic scale. Both in-plane and out-of-plane elastic strains were then determined at 2 nm spatial resolution and their average values were used to map the strains along and transverse to the epitaxial growth direction of both samples to determine its variation along several BZ/BT interfaces. In addition, the variation of the width of the inter-diffusion BT/BZ interfaces and intermixing between different layers are estimated. The obtained width average value measured in these inter-diffusion interfaces vary from 8 to 12% and from 9 to 11% for both superlattices having period of 6.6 nm and 11 nm respectively. These inter-diffusion interfaces and the inherent elastic strains due to the confined layers of the superlattices are known to be the most important parameters, responsible of the change in their functional properties.
The effect of octahedral tilting on the acentric structural transitions in AGaO$_{3}$/AGaO$_{3}$ [001], [110], and [111] superlattices (A, A = La, Pr, Nd) is studied using density functional theory. We find the displacive transitions are driven by two octahedral rotations modes (a$^{-}$a$^{-}$c$^{0}$ and a$^{0}$a$^{0}$c$^{+}$ tilting), with amplitudes that depend on the A and A chemistry and cation ordering direction. We find the ground states structures of the [001] and [111] ordered superlattices are polar. The coupling of octahedral tilting modes through a hybrid improper ferroelectric mechanism induces the polar displacements and produces the macroscopic electric polarizations.
Control of structural couplings at the complex-oxide interfaces is a powerful platform for creating new ultrathin layers with electronic and magnetic properties unattainable in the bulk. However, with the capability to design and control the electronic structure of such buried layers and interfaces at a unit-cell level, a new challenge emerges to be able to probe these engineered emergent phenomena with depth-dependent atomic resolution as well as element- and orbital selectivity. Here, we utilize a combination of core-level and valence-band soft x-ray standing-wave photoemission spectroscopy, in conjunction with scanning transmission electron microscopy, to probe the depth-dependent and single-unit-cell resolved electronic structure of an isovalent manganite superlattice [Eu0.7Sr0.3MnO3/La0.7Sr0.3MnO3]x15 wherein the electronic-structural properties are intentionally modulated with depth via engineered oxygen octahedra rotations/tilts and A-site displacements. Our unit-cell resolved measurements reveal significant transformations in the local chemical and electronic valence-band states, which are consistent with the layer-resolved first-principles theoretical calculations, thus opening the door for future depth-resolved studies of a wide variety of hetero-engineered material systems.
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