Thickness-driven antiferroelectric-to-ferroelectric phase transition of thin PbZrO3 layers in epitaxial PbZrO3/Pb(Zr0.8Ti0.2)O3 multilayers

Epitaxial antiferroelectric/ferroelectric PbZrO3/PbZr0.8Ti0.2O3 multilayers were grown on SrRuO3-electroded SrTiO3(100) substrates by pulsed laser deposition. Polarization-field and switching current-voltage curves show a mixed antiferroelectric-ferroelectric behavior of the multilayers with an individual layer thickness above 10 nm, whereas below 10 nm the multilayers show only ferroelectric behavior. Clearly the PbZrO3 layers thinner than 10 nm experienced a transition into the ferroelectric state. X-ray diffraction reciprocal space mapping showed a corresponding orthorhombic-to-rhombohedral transition of the PbZrO3 layers. The observations are discussed in terms of the influence of strain.