Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 28, 2025

Visualizing Uniaxial-strain Manipulation of Antiferromagnetic Domains in Fe1+YTe Using a Spin-polarized Scanning Tunneling Microscope
Published on: March 24, 2019
Octahedral-Rotation-Induced, Antiferroelectric-like Double Hysteresis in Strained Perovskites
1Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, United States.
Abstract:
Antiferroelectrics, which host both polar and antipolar order parameters, are characterized by the double hysteresis loops which are advantageous for various applications such as high-density energy storage. In this study, we investigate the coupling between oxygen octahedral rotations and polarization in well-known perovskites, with a focus on SrTiO3. Using first-principles calculations and symmetry-adapted Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire theory, we construct an energy landscape to analyze how this coupling shapes polarization-voltage hysteresis behavior. We show that tuning the relative strength of polar and rotational instabilities by exploiting epitaxial strain and layering leads to nontrivial hysteresis behavior. Consequently, the rotation coupling with polarization leads to an expanded search space of materials exhibiting antiferroelectric-like double hysteresis.
Related Concept Videos
Crystal Field Theory - Octahedral Complexes
To explain the observed behavior of transition metal complexes (such as colors), a model involving electrostatic interactions between the electrons from the ligands and the electrons in the unhybridized d orbitals of the central metal atom has been developed. This electrostatic model is crystal field theory (CFT). It helps to understand, interpret, and predict the colors, magnetic behavior, and some structures of coordination compounds of transition metals.
CFT focuses on...
Crystal Field Theory - Tetrahedral and Square Planar Complexes
Crystal field theory (CFT) is applicable to molecules in geometries other than octahedral. In octahedral complexes, the lobes of the dx2−y2 and dz2 orbitals point directly at the ligands. For tetrahedral complexes, the d orbitals remain in place, but with only four ligands located between the axes. None of the orbitals points directly at the tetrahedral ligands. However, the dx2−y2 and dz2 orbitals (along the Cartesian axes) overlap with the ligands less than the dxy,...
Woodward–Hoffmann Selection Rules and Microscopic Reversibility
Ferromagnetism
Stereoisomerism
Isomers are different chemical species that have the same chemical formula.
Transition metal complexes often exist as geometric isomers, in which the same atoms are connected through the same types of bonds but with differences in their orientation in space. Coordination complexes with two different ligands in the cis and trans positions from a ligand of interest form isomers. For example, the octahedral [Co(NH3)4Cl2]+ ion has two isomers (Figure 1) In the cis...
Colors and Magnetism
When atoms or molecules absorb light at the proper frequency, their electrons are excited to higher-energy orbitals. For many main group atoms and molecules, the absorbed photons are in the ultraviolet range of the electromagnetic spectrum, which cannot be detected by the human eye. For coordination compounds, the energy difference between the d orbitals often allows photons in the visible range to be absorbed and emitted, which is seen as colors by the human...

