TY - JOUR
T1 - Well-defined double hysteresis loop in NaNbO3 antiferroelectrics
AU - Luo, Nengneng
AU - Ma, Li
AU - Luo, Gengguang
AU - Xu, Chao
AU - Rao, Lixiang
AU - Chen, Zhengu
AU - Cen, Zhenyong
AU - Feng, Qin
AU - Chen, Xiyong
AU - Toyohisa, Fujita
AU - Zhu, Ye
AU - Hong, Jiawang
AU - Li, Jing Feng
AU - Zhang, Shujun
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52072080) and Guangxi Natural Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (Grant No. 2022GXNSFFA035034). Y.Z. acknowledges the support of the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (Grant No. C5029-18E). J.L. acknowledges the support of Tsinghua-Foshan Innovation Special Fund (TFISF) under Grant No. 2020THFS0113.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).
PY - 2023/3
Y1 - 2023/3
N2 - Antiferroelectrics (AFEs) are promising candidates in energy-storage capacitors, electrocaloric solid-cooling, and displacement transducers. As an actively studied lead-free antiferroelectric (AFE) material, NaNbO3 has long suffered from its ferroelectric (FE)-like polarization-electric field (P-E) hysteresis loops with high remnant polarization and large hysteresis. Guided by theoretical calculations, a new strategy of reducing the oxygen octahedral tilting angle is proposed to stabilize the AFE P phase (Space group Pbma) of NaNbO3. To validate this, we judiciously introduced CaHfO3 with a low Goldschmidt tolerance factor and AgNbO3 with a low electronegativity difference into NaNbO3, the decreased cation displacements and [BO6] octahedral tilting angles were confirmed by Synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction and aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy. Of particular importance is that the 0.75NaNbO3−0.20AgNbO3−0.05CaHfO3 ceramic exhibits highly reversible phase transition between the AFE and FE states, showing well-defined double P-E loops and sprout-shaped strain-electric field curves with reduced hysteresis, low remnant polarization, high AFE-FE phase transition field, and zero negative strain. Our work provides a new strategy for designing NaNbO3-based AFE material with well-defined double P-E loops, which can also be extended to discover a variety of new lead-free AFEs.
AB - Antiferroelectrics (AFEs) are promising candidates in energy-storage capacitors, electrocaloric solid-cooling, and displacement transducers. As an actively studied lead-free antiferroelectric (AFE) material, NaNbO3 has long suffered from its ferroelectric (FE)-like polarization-electric field (P-E) hysteresis loops with high remnant polarization and large hysteresis. Guided by theoretical calculations, a new strategy of reducing the oxygen octahedral tilting angle is proposed to stabilize the AFE P phase (Space group Pbma) of NaNbO3. To validate this, we judiciously introduced CaHfO3 with a low Goldschmidt tolerance factor and AgNbO3 with a low electronegativity difference into NaNbO3, the decreased cation displacements and [BO6] octahedral tilting angles were confirmed by Synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction and aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy. Of particular importance is that the 0.75NaNbO3−0.20AgNbO3−0.05CaHfO3 ceramic exhibits highly reversible phase transition between the AFE and FE states, showing well-defined double P-E loops and sprout-shaped strain-electric field curves with reduced hysteresis, low remnant polarization, high AFE-FE phase transition field, and zero negative strain. Our work provides a new strategy for designing NaNbO3-based AFE material with well-defined double P-E loops, which can also be extended to discover a variety of new lead-free AFEs.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85151316322&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41467-023-37469-x
DO - 10.1038/s41467-023-37469-x
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 36997552
AN - SCOPUS:85151316322
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 14
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
IS - 1
M1 - 1776
ER -