Giant voltage amplification from electrostatically induced incipient ferroelectric states

Ferroelectrics subject to suitable electric boundary conditions present a steady negative capacitance response(1,2). When the ferroelectric is in a heterostructure, this behaviour yields a voltage amplification in the other elements, which experience a potential difference larger than the one applied, holding promise for low-power electronics(3). So far research has focused on verifying this effect and little is known about how to optimize it. Here, we describe an electrostatic theory of ferroelectric/dielectric superlattices, convenient model systems(4,5), and show the relationship between the negative permittivity of the ferroelectric layers and the voltage amplification in the dielectric ones. Then, we run simulations of PbTiO(3)/SrTiO(3) superlattices to reveal the factors most strongly affecting the amplification. In particular, we find that giant effects (up to tenfold increases) can be obtained when PbTiO(3) is brought close to the so-called ‘incipient ferroelectric’ state.