Dielectric and antiferroelectric materials are particularly promising for high-power energy storage applications. However, relatively low energy density greatly hinders their usage in storage technologies. Here, we report first-principles-based calculations predicting that epitaxial and initially nonpolar AlN/ScN superlattices can achieve an ultrahigh energy density of up to $200\mathrm{J}/{\mathrm{cm}}^{\text{3}}$, accompanied by an ideal efficiency of 100%. We also show that high energy density requires that the system be neither too close nor too far from a ferroelectric phase transition under zero electric field. A phenomenological model is further proposed to rationalize such striking features.

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• Dielectric properties
• Energy storage
• Epitaxial strain
• Ferroelectricity
• Strain
• Superlattices
• Density functional theory
• First-principles calculations