Unusual behaviour of the ferroelectric polarization in PbTiO3_{3}/SrTiO3_{3} superlattices

Artificial PbTiO$_{3}$/SrTiO$_{3}$ superlattices were constructed using off-axis RF magnetron sputtering. X-ray diffraction and piezoelectric atomic force microscopy were used to study the evolution of the ferroelectric polarization as the ratio of PbTiO$_{3}$ to SrTiO$_{3}$ was changed. For PbTiO$_{3}$ layer thicknesses larger than the 3-unit cells SrTiO$_{3}$ thickness used in the structure, the polarization is found to be reduced as the PbTiO$_{3}$ thickness is decreased. This observation confirms the primary role of the depolarization field in the polarization reduction in thin films. For the samples with ratios of PbTiO$_{3}$ to SrTiO$_{3}$ of less than one a surprising recovery of ferroelectricity that cannot be explained by electrostatic considerations was observed

First-principles study of the electrooptic effect in ferroelectric oxides

We present a method to compute the electrooptic tensor from first principles, explicitly taking into account the electronic, ionic and piezoelectric contributions. It allows us to study the non-linear optic behavior of three ferroelectric ABO_3 compounds : LiNbO_3, BaTiO_3 and PbTiO_3. Our calculations reveal the dominant contribution of the soft mode to the electrooptic coefficients in LiNbO_3 and BaTiO_3 and identify the coupling between the electric field and the polar atomic displacements along the B-O chains as the origin of the large electrooptic response in these compounds.Comment: accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

Electron localization : band-by-band decomposition, and application to oxides

Using a plane wave pseudopotential approach to density functional theory we investigate the electron localization length in various oxides. For this purpose, we first set up a theory of the band-by-band decomposition of this quantity, more complex than the decomposition of the spontaneous polarization (a related concept), because of the interband coupling. We show its interpretation in terms of Wannier functions and clarify the effect of the pseudopotential approximation. We treat the case of different oxides: BaO, $\alpha$-PbO, BaTiO$_3$ and PbTiO$_3$. We also investigate the variation of the localization tensor during the ferroelectric phase transitions of BaTiO$_3$ as well as its relationship with the Born effective charges

Temperature dependence of the electro-optic tensor and refractive indices of BaTiO3 from first principles

We present a method to compute the temperature dependence of the refractive indices and electro-optic coefficients of ferroelectrics from a first-principles effective Hamiltonian and apply it to BaTiO3 in its tetragonal phase. We show that the effective Hamiltonian is a valid approach to study optical properties. We compare our formalism with the model of DiDomenico and Wemple and justify why the latter was successful, although its basic assumption is not met in practice

Electron localization in lithium niobate

Using a plane-wave pseudopotential approach to density functional theory, we investigate the degree of electron localization in lithium niobate. We pay a particular attention to its variation during the phase transition and to the relationship with the electronic structure and the Born effective charges in this material. A band-by-band decomposition allows us to focus on the different bands composing the energy spectrum of this compound. At variance with previous calculations based on finite differences, the localization tensor has been obtained using linear-response techniques

Raman scattering intensities in BaTiO3 and PbTiO3 prototypical ferroelectrics from density functional theory

Nonlinear optical susceptibilities and Raman scattering spectra of the ferroelectric phases of BaTiO3 and PbTiO3 are computed using a first-principles approach based on density functional theory and taking advantage of a recent implementation based on the nonlinear response formalism and the 2n + 1 theorem. These two prototypical ferroelectric compounds were chosen to demonstrate the accuracy of the Raman calculation based both on their complexity and their technological importance. The computation of the Raman scattering intensities has been performed not only for the transverse optical modes, but also for the longitudinal optical ones. The agreement between the measured and computed Raman spectra of these prototypical ferroelectrics is remarkable for both the frequency position and the intensity of Raman lines. This agreement presently demonstrates the state-of-the-art in the computation of Raman responses on one of the most complex systems, ferroelectrics, and constitutes a step forward in the reliable prediction of their electro-optical responses