Domain Morphology, Electrocaloric Response, and Negative Capacitance States of Ferroelectric Nanowires Array

TL;DR

This study uses finite element modeling to analyze ferroelectric nanowire arrays, revealing how size, interactions, and surrounding medium influence domain structures, electrocaloric effects, and negative capacitance states, with implications for device optimization.

Contribution

It provides a detailed theoretical analysis of domain morphology and electrocaloric response in ferroelectric nanowire arrays, highlighting how to maximize negative capacitance and electrocaloric effects through size and material parameters.

Findings

Stable paraelectric and ferroelectric states depend on wire size and surrounding permittivity.

Dipole interactions influence the stability of polar and anti-polar states in the array.

Maximized negative capacitance and electrocaloric response are achievable by tuning wire radius and dielectric environment.

Abstract

We analyzed the domain morphology, electrocaloric response, and negative capacitance states in a one-dimensional array of uniformly oriented, radial symmetric ferroelectric nanowires, whose spontaneous polarization is normal to their symmetry axis. The wires are densely packed between flat electrodes. Using finite element modeling based on the Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire approach, electrostatics, and elasticity theory, we calculated the distributions of spontaneous polarization, domain structures, electric potential, electric field, dielectric permittivity, and electrocaloric response in the nanowires. Due to size and depolarization effects, the paraelectric and ferroelectric (poly-domain or single-domain) states of the wires can be stable, depending on their radius and the dielectric permittivity of the surrounding medium. It is demonstrated that dipole-dipole interaction between the nanowires determines the stability of the polar (or anti-polar) state in the array when the wire radius is significantly smaller than the critical size of the paraelectric transition in an isolated wire. We reveal that a large region of a mixed state, characterized by poly-domain ferroelectric states with nonzero average polarization inside each wire and zero average polarization of the whole array, can be stable. By selecting the dielectric permittivity of the surrounding medium and the nanowire radius, one can maximize the negative capacitance effect in the capacitor with densely packed wires. It is also possible to achieve maximal enhancement of the electrocaloric response due to size effects in the wires. The underlying physics of the predicted enhancement is the combined action of size effects and the long-range electrostatic interactions between the ferroelectric dipoles in the nanowires and the image charges in the electrodes