Thickness-dependent electrocaloric effect in mixed-phase Pb(0.87)Ba(0.1) La(0.02)(Zr(0.6)Sn(0.33)Ti(0.07))O(3) thin films

Full-perovskite Pb(0.87)Ba(0.1)La(0.02)(Zr(0.6)Sn(0.33)Ti(0.07))O(3) (PBLZST) thin films were fabricated by a sol–gel method. These revealed both rhombohedral and tetragonal phases, as opposed to the full-tetragonal phase previously reported in ceramics. The fractions of tetragonal and rhombohedral phases are found to be strongly dependent on film thickness. The fraction of tetragonal grains increases with increasing film thickness, as the substrate constraint throughout the film decreases with film thickness. The maximum of the dielectric constant (ε(m)) and the corresponding temperature (T(m)) are thickness-dependent and dictated by the fraction of rhombohedral and tetragonal phase, with ε(m) reaching a minimum at 400 nm and T(m) shifting to higher temperature with increasing thickness. With the thickness increase, the breakdown field decreases, but field-induced antiferroelectric–ferroelectric (E(AFE−FE)) and ferroelectric–antiferroelectric (E(FE−AFE)) switch fields increase. The electrocaloric effect increases with increasing film thickness. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Taking the temperature of phase transitions in cool materials’.