Theoretical prediction of piezoelectric property of new LiNbO3-type compound AlTlO3

By using systematic first principles calculation, we found that AlTlO3 compound of LiNbO3 structure shows large piezoelectric constants e(33) of 10.7 C/m(2) and d(33) of 56.7 pC/N. These piezoelectric constants are approximately six times larger than those of LiNbO3. AlTlO3 is predicted to be stabilized above 7 GPa. On the other hand, the calculated dielectric constant epsilon 33 shows diverged behavior around 2 GPa. This result indicates that AlTlO3 can be quenchable. Decomposition of the predicted piezoelectric constant revealed that the large piezoelectricity of AlTlO3 originates from the Tl displacement in accordance with external perturbation, which drives the ferroelectric soft mode of the corresponding paraelectric phase. However, the energy difference between the ferroelectric and paraelectric phases was small, approximately 1 meV/f.u. These insights suggest that fluctuation between ferroelectric and paraelectric phases causes large piezoelectricity in AlTlO3.