Narrow Results

Structural, elastic, mechanical and electronic properties of pure and zinc-doped SrTiO₃ at the concentration in the range (1–10%) are studied by first-principles calculations. The structural parameters of synthesized compounds agree well with the standard data depicting the growth of stable compounds. A slight obvious increase in the lattice constant of 3.9245Å is observed in Zn-doped SrTiO₃ due to the deviation of the atomic radii of Zn and Ti. Elastic constants and mechanical parameters of SrTiO₃ are closer to their available theoretical and experimental data. The investigated compounds exhibit brittle behavior for all Zn ratios. The doping zinc concentration reduces the indirect band gap value. The doping concentration 2%, gives a band gap value closer to the experimental one. The band gap of pure SrTiO₃ is 1.827eV and after doping with Zn for concentration from 1% to 10%, the optimized values are 1.970, 1.886, 1.802, 1.718, 1.635, 1.552, 1.470, 1.389, 1.310, 1.231 and 1.154eV.

A nonlinear thermodynamic formalism is developed to calculate the pyroelectric property of epitaxial single domain ${\mathrm{\text{SrTiO}}}_3∕\mathrm{\text{Si}}$ heterojunctions by taking into account the thermal expansion misfit strain at different temperatures. It has been demonstrated that the crucial role was played by the contribution associated with the structure order parameter arising from the rotations of oxygen octahedral on pyroelectricity. A dramatic decrease in the pyroelectric coefficient due to the strong coupling between the polarization and the structure order parameter is found at ferroelectric ${\mathbf{\text{T}}}_{\mathrm{\text{F1}}}$–${\mathbf{\text{T}}}_{\mathrm{\text{F2}}}$ phase transition. At the same time, the thermal expansion mismatch between film and substrate is also found to provide an additional weak decrease of pyroelectricity. The analytic relationship of the out-of-plane pyroelectric coefficient and dielectric constant of ferroelectric phases by considering the thermal expansion of thin films and substrates has been determined for the first time. Our research provides another avenue for the investigation of the pyroelectric effects of ferroic thin films, especially, such as antiferroelectric and multiferroic materials having two or more order parameters.