Above Room Temperature Ferroelectricity in Epitaxially Strained KTaO3

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Schwaigert, Tobias, Salmani-Rezaie, Salva, Hazra, Sankalpa, Saha, Utkarsh, Ramesh, Maya, Ross, Aiden, Pamuk, Betul, Chen, Long-Qing, Muller, David A., Schlom, Darrell G., Gopalan, Venkatraman, Ahadi, Kaveh
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Schwaigert, Tobias
Salmani-Rezaie, Salva
Hazra, Sankalpa
Saha, Utkarsh
Ramesh, Maya
Ross, Aiden
Pamuk, Betul
Chen, Long-Qing
Muller, David A.
Schlom, Darrell G.
Gopalan, Venkatraman
Ahadi, Kaveh
author_facet Schwaigert, Tobias
Salmani-Rezaie, Salva
Hazra, Sankalpa
Saha, Utkarsh
Ramesh, Maya
Ross, Aiden
Pamuk, Betul
Chen, Long-Qing
Muller, David A.
Schlom, Darrell G.
Gopalan, Venkatraman
Ahadi, Kaveh
contents Epitaxial strain is a powerful means to engineer emergent phenomena in thin films and heterostructures. Here, we demonstrate that KTaO3, a cubic perovskite in bulk form, can be epitaxially strained into a highly tunable ferroelectric. KTaO3 films grown commensurate to SrTiO3 (001) substrates experience an in-plane strain of -2.1 % that transforms the cubic structure into a tetragonal polar phase with transition temperature of 475 K, consistent with our thermodynamic calculations. We show that the Curie temperature and the spontaneous electric polarization can be system- atically controlled with epitaxial strain. Scanning transmission electron microscopy reveals cooperative polar displacements of the potassium columns with respect to the neighboring tantalum columns at room temperature. Optical second-harmonic generation results are described by a tetragonal polar point group (4mm), indicating the emergence of a global polar ground state. We observe a ferroelectric hysteresis response, using metal-insulator-metal capacitor test structures. The results demon- strate a robust intrinsic ferroelectric state in epitaxially strained KTaO3 thin films.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_14627
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Above Room Temperature Ferroelectricity in Epitaxially Strained KTaO3
Schwaigert, Tobias
Salmani-Rezaie, Salva
Hazra, Sankalpa
Saha, Utkarsh
Ramesh, Maya
Ross, Aiden
Pamuk, Betul
Chen, Long-Qing
Muller, David A.
Schlom, Darrell G.
Gopalan, Venkatraman
Ahadi, Kaveh
Materials Science
Epitaxial strain is a powerful means to engineer emergent phenomena in thin films and heterostructures. Here, we demonstrate that KTaO3, a cubic perovskite in bulk form, can be epitaxially strained into a highly tunable ferroelectric. KTaO3 films grown commensurate to SrTiO3 (001) substrates experience an in-plane strain of -2.1 % that transforms the cubic structure into a tetragonal polar phase with transition temperature of 475 K, consistent with our thermodynamic calculations. We show that the Curie temperature and the spontaneous electric polarization can be system- atically controlled with epitaxial strain. Scanning transmission electron microscopy reveals cooperative polar displacements of the potassium columns with respect to the neighboring tantalum columns at room temperature. Optical second-harmonic generation results are described by a tetragonal polar point group (4mm), indicating the emergence of a global polar ground state. We observe a ferroelectric hysteresis response, using metal-insulator-metal capacitor test structures. The results demon- strate a robust intrinsic ferroelectric state in epitaxially strained KTaO3 thin films.
title Above Room Temperature Ferroelectricity in Epitaxially Strained KTaO3
topic Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.14627