A combined theoretical and experimental study of the low temperature properties of BaZrO3

TL;DR

This study combines experimental and theoretical methods to investigate the low temperature properties of BaZrO3, revealing its stable cubic structure, quantum effects on dielectric response, and localized dielectric anomalies.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of BaZrO3's low temperature behavior using both experimental techniques and first-principles calculations, highlighting quantum effects and local structural anomalies.

Findings

BaZrO3 remains cubic and paraelectric down to 2 K.

Quantum effects cause negligible thermal change in lattice parameter below 40 K.

Dielectric response saturation and anomalies observed below 40-65 K.

Abstract

Low temperature properties of BaZrO3 are revealed by combining experimental techniques (X-ray diffraction, neutron scattering and dielectric measurements) with theoretical first-principles-based methods (total energy and linear response calculations within density functional theory, and effective Hamiltonian approaches incorporating/neglecting zero-point phonon vibrations). Unlike most of the perovskite systems, BaZrO3 does not undergo any (long-range-order) structural phase transition and thus remains cubic and paraelectric down to 2 K, even when neglecting zero-point phonon vibrations. On the other hand, these latter pure quantum effects lead to a negligible thermal dependency of the cubic lattice parameter below ~ 40 K. They also affect the dielectricity of BaZrO3 by inducing an overall saturation of the real part of the dielectric response, for temperatures below ~ 40 K. Two fine structures in the real part, as well as in the imaginary part, of dielectric response are further observed around 50-65 K and 15 K, respectively. Microscopic origins (e.g., unavoidable defects and oxygen octahedra rotation occurring at a local scale) of such anomalies are suggested. Finally, possible reasons for the facts that some of these dielectric anomalies have not been previously reported in the better studied KTaO3 and SrTiO3 incipient ferroelectrics are also discussed.