Giant electrocaloric effect in ferroelectric nanotubes near room temperature

Abstract

Ferroelectric perovskite oxides possess large electrocaloric effect, but only at high temperature, which limits their potential as next generation solid state cooling devices. Here, we demonstrate from phase field simulations that a giant adiabatic temperature change exhibits near room temperature in the strained ferroelectric PbTiO₃ nanotubes, which is several times in magnitude larger than that of PbTiO₃ thin films. Such giant adiabatic temperature change is attributed to the extrinsic contribution of unusual domain transition, which involves a dedicated interplay among the electric field, strain, temperature and polarization. Careful selection of external strain allows one to harness the extrinsic contribution to obtain large adiabatic temperature change in ferroelectric nanotubes near room temperature. Our finding provides a novel insight into the electrocaloric response of ferroelectric nanostructures and leads to a new strategy to tailor and improve the electrocaloric properties of ferroelectric materials through domain engineering.