Strain tunability of dielectric and ferroelectric properties in epitaxial lead titanate thin films

Many distinguished properties of epitaxial ferroelectric thin films can be tunable through the misfit strain. The strain tunability of ferroelectric and dielectric properties in epitaxial lead titanate ultrathin films is numerically investigated by using a phase field model, in which the surface effect of polarization is taken into account. The response of polarization to the applied electric field in the thickness direction is examined with different misfit strains at room temperature. It is found that a compressive misfit strain increases the coercive field and the remanent polarization while a tensile misfit strain decreases both of them. The nonlinear dielectric constants of the thin films with tensile misfit strains are much larger than those of the thin films without misfit strains, which are attributed to the existence of the a/c/a/c multiple domains in the thin films under tensile misfit strains.