Strain effect on coercive field of epitaxial barium titanate thin films

Strain is generally known to increase the coercive field of a ferroelectric thin film as compared to a stress-free single crystal or a strain-relaxed film. We studied the coercive fields and remanent polarizations of (001)-oriented epitaxial barium titanate thin films using the phase-field approach. It is demonstrated, while the remanent polarization decreases as in-plane strain changes from being compressive to tensile, the variation of coercive field with strain is complicated. We noted more than two times drop in coercive field with a reduction of compressive strain of only similar to 0.05%, which we attribute to the existence of multiple ferroelectric phases. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.