Temperature-strain phase diagram for BaTiO3 thin films -: art. no. 072905

The shifts of ferroelectric phase transition temperatures and domain stabilities of BaTiO3 thin films as a function of strain and temperature were studied using phase-field simulations. A new Landau-Devonshire thermodynamic potential based on an eighth-order polynomial was employed for describing the bulk free energy of BaTiO3 single crystals, which allows the exploration of domain stability in the full range of experimentally accessible compressive and tensile strains. Based on the simulation results, a phase diagram was constructed, which displays the stability of various ferroelectric phases and domain structures as a function of temperature and strain.