Orientation dependence of phase diagrams and physical properties in epitaxial Ba0.6Sr0.4TiO3 films

Orientation dependence of phase diagrams and physical properties of Ba0.6Sr0.4TiO3 films are investigated by using a phenomenological Landau-Devonshire theory. New ferroelectric phases, such as the tetragonal a1 phase and the orthorhombic a2c phase in (110) oriented film and the monoclinic MA phase in (111) oriented film, appear in the “misfit strain-temperature” phase diagrams as compared with (001) oriented film. Moreover, the phase diagrams of (110) and (111) oriented films are more complex than that of (001) oriented film due to the nonlinear coupling terms appeared in the thermodynamic potential. The dielectric and piezoelectric properties largely depend on the misfit strain and orientation. (111) oriented film has the better piezoelectric property than (110) oriented film. Furthermore, the compressive misfit strain is prone to induce the larger piezoelectric property than tensile misfit strain.