First-principles accurate total energy surfaces for polar structural distortions of BaTiO3, PbTiO3, and SrTiO3: Consequences for structural transition temperatures

Specific forms of the exchange-correlation energy functionals in first-principles density-functional-theory-based calculations, such as the local-density approximation (LDA) and generalized-gradient approximations (GGA), give rise to structural lattice parameters with typical errors of -2% and 2%. Due to a strong coupling between structure and polarization, the order parameter of ferroelectric transitions, they result in large errors in estimation of temperature-dependent ferroelectric structural transition properties. Here, we employ a recently developed GGA functional of Wu and Cohen [Phys. Rev. B 73, 235116 (2006)] and determine total energy surfaces for zone-center distortions of BaTiO3, PbTiO3, and SrTiO3 and compare them with the ones obtained with calculations based on standard LDA and GGA. Confirming that the Wu and Cohen functional allows better estimation of structural properties at 0 K, we determine a set of parameters defining the effective Hamiltonian for ferroelectric transition in BaTiO3. Using the new set of parameters, we perform molecular-dynamics simulations under effective pressures p=0.0 GPa, p=-2.0 GPa, and p=-0.005T GPa. The simulations under p=-0.005T GPa, which is for simulating thermal expansion, show a clear improvement in the cubic to tetragonal transition temperature and c/a parameter of its ferroelectric tetragonal phase, while the description of transitions at lower temperatures to orthorhombic and rhombohedral phases is marginally improved. Our findings augur well for use of Wu-Cohen functional in studies of ferroelectrics at nanoscale, particularly in the form of epitaxial films where the properties depend crucially on the lattice mismatch.