Effects of composition and misfit strain on multicaloric effects in PbZr1-xTixO3 thin films

In this study, multicaloric effects in PbZr1-xTixO3 thin films were investigated using phase field simulations and thermodynamic analyses. The results indicate that multicaloric temperature changes depend significantly on the composition and misfit strain in PbZr1-xTixO3 thin films. The maximum multicaloric temperature change was found to be 11.8 K in a PbZr0.25Ti0.75O3 thin film with tensile misfit strain at room temperature. Understanding the domain evolutions with different material compositions and misfit strains is of key importance for tuning the multicaloric effects in PbZr1-xTixO3 thin films. These results provide an effective way of controlling the multicaloric effects in ferroelectric thin films. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.