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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 96 » Issue 12
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 127601 (2006) [4 pages]

Stabilization of Monodomain Polarization in Ultrathin PbTiO3 Films

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D. D. Fong1, A. M. Kolpak2, J. A. Eastman1, S. K. Streiffer1, P. H. Fuoss1, G. B. Stephenson1, Carol Thompson3, D. M. Kim4, K. J. Choi4, C. B. Eom4, I. Grinberg2, and A. M. Rappe2
1Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA
2The Makineni Theoretical Laboratories, Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA
3Department of Physics, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois 60115, USA
4Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA

Received 22 September 2005; published 28 March 2006

Using in situ high-resolution synchrotron x-ray scattering, the Curie temperature TC has been determined for ultrathin c-axis epitaxial PbTiO3 films on conducting substrates (SrRuO3 on SrTiO3), with surfaces exposed to a controlled vapor environment. The suppression of TC was relatively small, even for the thinnest film (1.2 nm). We observe that 180° stripe domains do not form, indicating that the depolarizing field is compensated by free charge at both interfaces. This is confirmed by ab initio calculations that find polar ground states in the presence of ionic adsorbates.

© 2006 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.127601
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.127601
PACS:
77.80.−e, 64.70.Nd, 68.55.−a, 77.84.Dy
 
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