Effects of external mechanical loading on phase diagrams and dielectric properties in epitaxial ferroelectric thin films with anisotropic in-plane misfit strains

A phenomenological Landau-Devonshine theory is used to describe the effects of external mechanical loading on equilibrium polarization states and dielectric properties in epitaxial ferroelectric thin films grown on dissimilar orthorhombic substrates which induce anisotropic misfit strains in the film plane. The calculation focuses on single-domain perovskite BaTiO3 and PbTiO3 thin films on the assumption that um(1)=-um(2). Compared with the phase diagrams without external loading, the characteristic features of misfit strain-misfit strain phase diagrams at room temperature are the presence of paraelectric phase and the strain-induced ferroelectric to paraelectric phase transition. Due to the external loading, the misfit strain-stress and stress-temperature phase diagrams also have drastic changes, especially for the vanishing of paraelectric phase in misfit strain-stress phase map and the appearance of possible ferroelectric phases. We also investigate the dielectric properties and the tunability of both BaTiO3 and PbTiO3 thin films. We find that the external stress dependence of phase diagrams and dielectric properties largely depends on strain anisotropy as well. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.