Interferroelectric transition as another manifestation of intrinsic size effect in ferroelectrics

Abstract

In general, crystallite size reduction is known to suppress the ferroic order (polarization or magnetization) in ferroelectric and magnetic systems. Using free particles of a giant tetragonality (c/a–1=0.18) ferroelectric alloy BiFeO₃−PbTiO₃ as the model system, here we show that the intrinsic size effect in ferroelectrics can as well manifest in terms of switching the ground state from one ferroelectric phase (tetragonal with polarization along [001]) to another ferroelectric phase (rhombohedral with polarization along [111]). In this particular case, because of the strong coupling of the magnetic and structural degrees of freedom, a magnetic order also sets in below the critical size, making it a size induced magnetoferroelectric transformation. The driving force for this unusual transformation is argued to be the large depolarizing and domain wall energies in the tetragonal phase.