Effect of electric field orientation on ferroelectric phase transition and electrocaloric effect

The influence of electric field orientation on phase transitions and electrocaloric effects (ECEs) in BaTiO3 single crystals is studied by performing molecular dynamics simulation of first-principles-based effective Hamiltonian. The ECE is directly characterized via the adiabatic temperature change (DT) under the microcanonical ensemble. The simulation results demonstrate that different orientation relationship between the electric field and the polarization direction of ferroelectric phase leads to abundant phase structures and ECE behaviors. The electric-field-induced phase transitions produce remarkable ECE peaks/valleys, whereas the polarization rotation and/or extension without phase transition induced by the electric field produces small positive ECEs, which are insensitive to temperature and electric field direction. For the tetragonal-cubic phase transition, ECEs are always positive regardless of the applied electric field direction, and the value and width of ECE peak both increase with the reduction of the angle between electric field and crystallographic orientation. For the orthorhombic-tetragonal and rhombohedral-orthorhombic phase transitions, the sign of ECE gradually changes from negative to positive during the field direction rotates in planes between crystallographic orientations, and the coexistence of positive and negative appears when the field along non-crystallographic directions. Our simulated results shed light on a comprehensive physical understanding of the electric-field-orientation dependent ECE and offer instruction for the design of the refrigeration cycle by combining positive and negative ECEs. (C) 2020 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.