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Ferroelectricity and large piezoelectric response of AlN/ScN superlattice
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Date
2019-05-10
Authors
Noor-A-Alam, Mohammad
Olszewski, Oskar Zbigniew
Nolan, Michael
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
American Chemical Society
Published Version
Abstract
Based on density functional theory, we investigate the ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties of the AlN/ScN superlattice, consisting of ScN and AlN buckled monolayers alternating along the crystallographic c-direction. We find that the polar wurtzite (w-ScAlN) structure is mechanically and dynamically stable and is more stable than the nonpolar hexagonal flat configuration. We show that ferroelectric polarization switching can be possible for an epitaxially tensile-strained superlattice. Because of the elastic constant C33 softening, together with an increase in e33, the piezoelectric coefficient d33 of the superlattice is doubled compared to that of pure w-AlN. The combined enhancement of Born effective charges (Z33) and sensitivity of the atomic coordinates to the external strain is the origin of the large piezoelectric constant e33. Moreover, we show that the epitaxial biaxial tensile strain significantly enhances the piezo-response, so that d33 becomes 7 times larger than that of w-AlN at 4% strain. The tensile strain results in a huge enhancement in e33 by increasing Z33 and , which boost the piezoelectric.
Description
Keywords
Density functional theory (DFT) , Ferroelectric , Piezoelectric , Short-period nitrides heterostructure , Wurtzite-AlN
Citation
Noor-A-Alam, M., Olszewski, O. Z. and Nolan, M. (2019) 'Ferroelectricity and Large Piezoelectric Response of AlN/ScN Superlattice', ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 11(22), pp. 20482-20490. doi: 10.1021/acsami.8b22602
Copyright
© 2019 American Chemical Society. This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.8b22602