Flash annealing–engineered wafer-scale relaxor antiferroelectrics for enhanced energy storage performance

TL;DR

A new flash annealing method creates high-performance antiferroelectric films for better energy storage in capacitors.

Contribution

Introduces flash annealing to engineer relaxor antiferroelectric films with exceptional thermal stability and energy density.

Findings

Flash annealing produces PbZrO3 films with 36% subgrain boundary fractions and nanoscale domains.

The films achieve 63.5 joules per cubic meter energy storage density and 4800 kilovolts per centimeter breakdown strength.

Performance degrades less than 3% up to 250°C, showing excellent thermal stability.

Abstract

Dielectric capacitors are essential for energy storage systems because of their high-power density and fast operation speed. However, optimizing energy storage density with concurrent thermal stability remains a substantial challenge. Here, we develop a flash annealing process with ultrafast heating and cooling rates of 1000°C per second, which facilitates the rapid crystallization of PbZrO3 film within a mere second, while locking its high-temperature microstructure to room temperature. This produces compact films with subgrain boundary fractions of 36%, nanodomains of several nanometers, and negligible lead volatilization. These contribute to relaxor antiferroelectric film with a high breakdown strength (4800 kilovolts per centimeter) and large polarization (70 coulombs per square centimeter). Consequently, we have achieved a high energy storage density of 63.5 joules per cubic meter and outstanding thermal stability with performance degradation less than 3% up to 250°C. Our approach is extendable to ferroelectrics like Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 and on wafer scale, providing on-chip nonlinear dielectric energy storage solutions with industrial scalability.

Flash annealing ultrafast crystallizes PbZrO3, yielding a relaxor antiferroelectric state that boosts energy storage performance.

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