Ferroelectricity in Charge-Ordering Crystals with Centrosymmetric Lattices

• Published in: Chinese physics letters Vol. 39; no. 9; pp. 97701 - 99
• Main Authors: Yang, Yali, Bellaiche, Laurent, Xiang, Hongjun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chinese Physical Society and IOP Publishing Ltd 01.09.2022; Shanghai Qizhi Institution,Shanghai 200232,China%Physics Department and Institute for Nanoscience and Engineering,University of Arkansas,Fayetteville,Arkansas 72701,USA; Key Laboratory of Computational Physical Sciences(Ministry of Education),State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics,and Department of Physics,Fudan University,Shanghai 200433,China
• ISSN: 0256-307X; 1741-3540
• DOI: 10.1088/0256-307X/39/9/097701

The switchability between the two ferroelectric (FE) states of an FE material makes FEs widely used in memories and other electronic devices. However, for conventional FEs, its FE switching only occurs between the two FE states whose spatial inversion symmetry is broken. The search for FE materials is therefore subject to certain limitations. We propose a new type of FEs whose FE states still contain spatial inversion centers. The change in polarization of this new type of FEs originates from electronic transfer between two centrosymmetric FE states under an external electric field. Taking BaBiO 3 as an example, we show that charge-ordering systems can be a typical representative of this new type of FEs. Moreover, unlike traditional ferroelectrics, the change in polarization in this new type of FEs is quantum in nature with the direction dependent on the specific FE transition path. Our work therefore not only extends the concept of FEs but may also open up a new way to find multiferroics.