Prediction of a native ferroelectric metal

Alessio Filippetti (), Vincenzo Fiorentini (), Francesco Ricci, Pietro Delugas and Jorge Íñiguez ()
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Alessio Filippetti: CNR-IOM SLACS Cagliari, Istituto Officina dei Materiali, Cittadella Universitaria
Vincenzo Fiorentini: CNR-IOM SLACS Cagliari, Istituto Officina dei Materiali, Cittadella Universitaria
Francesco Ricci: Universita` di Cagliari, Cittadella Universitaria
Pietro Delugas: Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Via Morego 30
Jorge Íñiguez: Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Over 50 years ago, Anderson and Blount discussed symmetry-allowed polar distortions in metals, spawning the idea that a material might be simultaneously metallic and ferroelectric. While many studies have ever since considered such or similar situations, actual ferroelectricity—that is, the existence of a switchable intrinsic electric polarization—has not yet been attained in a metal, and is in fact generally deemed incompatible with the screening by mobile conduction charges. Here we refute this common wisdom and show, by means of first-principles simulations, that native metallicity and ferroelectricity coexist in the layered perovskite Bi5Ti5O17. We show that, despite being a metal, Bi5Ti5O17 can sustain a sizable potential drop along the polar direction, as needed to reverse its polarization by an external bias. We also reveal striking behaviours, as the self-screening mechanism at work in thin Bi5Ti5O17 layers, emerging from the interplay between polar distortions and carriers in this compound.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11211

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