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Updated: Dec 8, 2025

Chemical Synthesis of Porous Barium Titanate Thin Film and Thermal Stabilization of Ferroelectric Phase by Porosity-Induced Strain
Published on: March 27, 2018
Phase transition enhanced superior elasticity in freestanding single-crystalline multiferroic BiFeO3 membranes
Bin Peng1, Ren-Ci Peng1, Yong-Qiang Zhang2
1Electronic Materials Research Laboratory, Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education, School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Center for Spintronics and Quantum System, State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China.
Abstract:
The integration of ferroic oxide thin films into advanced flexible electronics will bring multifunctionality beyond organic and metallic materials. However, it is challenging to achieve high flexibility in single-crystalline ferroic oxides that is considerable to organic or metallic materials. Here, we demonstrate the superior flexibility of freestanding single-crystalline BiFeO3 membranes, which are typical multiferroic materials with multifunctionality. They can endure cyclic 180° folding and have good recoverability, with the maximum bending strain up to 5.42% during in situ bending under scanning electron microscopy, far beyond their bulk counterparts. Such superior elasticity mainly originates from reversible rhombohedral-tetragonal phase transition, as revealed by phase-field simulations. This study suggests a general fundamental mechanism for a variety of ferroic oxides to achieve high flexibility and to work as smart materials in flexible electronics.
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