Atomic scale symmetry and polar nanoclusters in the paraelectric phase of ferroelectric materials

Andreja Bencan, Emad Oveisi, Sina Hashemizadeh, Vignaswaran K. Veerapandiyan, Takuya Hoshina, Tadej Rojac, Marco Deluca, Goran Drazic and Dragan Damjanovic ()
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Andreja Bencan: Jozef Stefan Institute
Emad Oveisi: Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Sina Hashemizadeh: Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Vignaswaran K. Veerapandiyan: Materials Center Leoben Forschung GmbH
Takuya Hoshina: Tokyo Institute of Technology
Tadej Rojac: Jozef Stefan Institute
Marco Deluca: Materials Center Leoben Forschung GmbH
Goran Drazic: National Institute of Chemistry
Dragan Damjanovic: Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract The nature of the “forbidden” local- and long-range polar order in nominally non-polar paraelectric phases of ferroelectric materials has been an open question since the discovery of ferroelectricity in oxide perovskites, ABO3. A currently considered model suggests locally correlated displacements of B-site atoms along a subset of cubic directions. Such off-site displacements have been confirmed experimentally; however, being essentially dynamic in nature they cannot account for the static nature of the symmetry-forbidden polarization implied by the macroscopic experiments. Here, in an atomically resolved study by aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy complemented by Raman spectroscopy, we reveal, directly visualize and quantitatively describe static, 2–4 nm large polar nanoclusters in the nominally non-polar cubic phases of (Ba,Sr)TiO3 and BaTiO3. These results have implications on understanding of the atomic-scale structure of disordered materials, the origin of precursor states in ferroelectrics, and may help answering ambiguities on the dynamic-versus-static nature of nano-sized clusters.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-23600-3

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