Ferroelectricity

Quasi-two-dimensional ferroelectricity in KNbO$_3$/KTaO$_3$ superlattices

A. I. Lebedev

Lomonosov Moscow State University

Abstract: First-principles density functional theory is used to calculate the phonon spectrum in the paraelectric phase, the ground-state structure and polarization distribution in the polar phase, and energies of ferro- and antiferroelectrically ordered phases of free-standing (KNbO$_3$)$_1$(KTaO$_3$)$_n$ ferroelectric superlattices with $n$ = 1–7. It is established that quasi-two-dimensional ferroelectricity with polarization oriented in the layer plane, which weakly interacts with polarization in neighboring layers, appears in potassium niobate layers with a thickness of one unit cell in the superlattices. The possibility of using of such ferroelectric superlattices as a medium for three-dimensional information recording is shown.

Received: 06.12.2010
Accepted: 20.04.2011

 English version: Physics of the Solid State, 2011, 53:12, 2463–2467

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