Well-defined double hysteresis loop in NaNbO3 antiferroelectrics

Nengneng Luo; Li Ma; Gengguang Luo; Chao Xu; Lixiang Rao; Zhengu Chen; Zhenyong Cen; Qin Feng; Xiyong Chen; Fujita Toyohisa; Ye Zhu; Jiawang Hong; Jing-Feng Li; Shujun Zhang

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-37469-x

Well-defined double hysteresis loop in NaNbO₃ antiferroelectrics

Nengneng Luo^*
, Li Ma
, Gengguang Luo
, Chao Xu
, Lixiang Rao^*
, Zhengu Chen
, Zhenyong Cen
, Qin Feng
, Xiyong Chen
, Fujita Toyohisa
, Ye Zhu
, Jiawang Hong
, Jing-Feng Li^*
, Shujun Zhang^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications and Reviews › RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal › peer-review

111 Citations (Scopus)

71 Downloads (CityUHK Scholars)

Abstract

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. © 2023, The Author(s).

Original language	English
Article number	1776
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	14
Online published	30 Mar 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-37469-x
Publication status	Published - 2023
Externally published	Yes

Funding

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's Copyright Statement

This full text is made available under CC-BY 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

RGC Funding Information

RGC-funded

Access Output

10.1038/s41467-023-37469-x

297979855.pdfFinal Published version, 3.7 MBLicence: CC BY

Other Access Options

Check CityUHK Library

Permanent Link

Right click to copy link

Cite this

@article{be85dfd9d6ec4d4dbdb22c8e01a24dbf,

title = "Well-defined double hysteresis loop in NaNbO3 antiferroelectrics",

abstract = "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. {\textcopyright} 2023, The Author(s).",

author = "Nengneng Luo and Li Ma and Gengguang Luo and Chao Xu and Lixiang Rao and Zhengu Chen and Zhenyong Cen and Qin Feng and Xiyong Chen and Fujita Toyohisa and Ye Zhu and Jiawang Hong and Jing-Feng Li and Shujun Zhang",

year = "2023",

doi = "10.1038/s41467-023-37469-x",

language = "English",

volume = "14",

journal = "Nature Communications",

issn = "2041-1723",

publisher = "Springer Nature",

}

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

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

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. © 2023, The Author(s).

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. © 2023, The Author(s).

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85151316322

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85151316322#tab=impact

U2 - 10.1038/s41467-023-37469-x

DO - 10.1038/s41467-023-37469-x

M3 - RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal

C2 - 36997552

SN - 2041-1723

VL - 14

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

M1 - 1776

ER -