- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review Materials

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Editors' Suggestion
  • Letter
  • Open Access

Second harmonic generation imaging of local antiferroelectric-ferroelectric phase transitions in a PbZrO3 thin film

A. Levchuk1, P. Dufour2, K. Parmar2,3, M. Viret1, T. Maroutian3, S. Fusil2, V. Garcia2,*, and J.-Y. Chauleau1,†

  • *Contact author: vincent.garcia@cnrs-thales.fr
  • †Contact author: jean-yves.chauleau@cea.fr
PDF

Phys. Rev. Materials 10, L051401 – Published 14 May, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/mh4w-r8qw

Abstract

Polar orders play a central role in modern technologies, spanning applications from information storage and energy harvesting to neuromorphic computing. While ferroelectric (FE) implementation into devices is more mature, the development of antiferroelectric (AFE)-based devices is still in its infancy. However, AFEs are emerging as promising candidates for multiple applications such as energy storage (supercapacitors), all-solid refrigeration (electrocaloric cooling) or thermal switches. In this work, we probe the transition between the antipolar and polar states in epitaxial layers of the prototypical antiferroelectric oxide, PbZrO3. We discuss operando second-harmonic generation (SHG) imaging as a powerful tool, providing spatially resolved insights into the electric-field-induced AFE–FE phase transitions. This technique enables the mapping of local symmetry-breaking and phase coexistence during switching, offering a route to unravel the microscopic mechanisms governing AFE–FE transitions in such functional oxides.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

Supplemental Material

References (18)

  1. IEA (2025), Energy and AI, IEA, Paris https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-and-ai, Licence: CC BY 4.0, (n.d.).
  2. S. Manipatruni, D. E. Nikonov, C.-C. Lin, T. A. Gosavi, H. Liu, B. Prasad, Y.-L. Huang, E. Bonturim, R. Ramesh, and I. A. Young, Scalable energy-efficient magnetoelectric spin–orbit logic, Nature (London) 565, 35 (2019).
  3. C. Kittel, Theory of antiferroelectric crystals, Phys. Rev. 82, 729 (1951).
  4. C. A. Randall, Z. Fan, I. Reaney, L. Chen, and S. Trolier-McKinstry, Antiferroelectrics: History, fundamentals, crystal chemistry, crystal structures, size effects, and applications, J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 104, 3775 (2021).
  5. P. Dufour et al., Ferroelectric phase transitions in epitaxial antiferroelectric PbZrO3 thin films, Appl. Phys. Rev. 10, 021405 (2023).
  6. K. Parmar, P. Dufour, E. Texier, C. Carrétéro, X. Li, F. Godel, J. Hlinka, B. Dkhil, D. Sando, H. Aramberri, et al., Establishing a pure antiferroelectric PbZrO3 phase through tensile epitaxial strain, Nat. Commun. 16, 6536 (2025).
  7. A. Chanthbouala, V. Garcia, R. O. Cherifi, K. Bouzehouane, S. Fusil, X. Moya, S. Xavier, H. Yamada, C. Deranlot, N. D. Mathur, et al., A ferroelectric memristor, Nat. Mater. 11, 860 (2012).
  8. G. Apachitei, J. J. P. Peters, A. M. Sanchez, D. J. Kim, and M. Alexe, Antiferroelectric tunnel junctions, Adv. Elect. Mater. 3, 1700126 (2017).
  9. M. Bibes, J. Grollier, V. Garcia, and N. Locatelli, Neuromimetic network and related production method, 11551749 (n.d.).
  10. R.-J. Jiang et al., A Roadmap for ferroelectric–antiferroelectric phase transition, Nano Lett. 24, 11714 (2024).
  11. S. A. Denev, T. T. A. Lummen, E. Barnes, A. Kumar, and V. Gopalan, Probing ferroelectrics using optical second harmonic generation, J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 94, 2699 (2011).
  12. J.-Y. Chauleau and M. Trassin, Sensing multiferroic states non-invasively using optical second harmonic generation, Microstructures 4, 2024005 (2024).
  13. H. Fujishita, Y. Shiozaki, N. Achiwa, and E. Sawaguchi, Crystal structure determination of antiferroelectric PbZrO3—Application of profile analysis method to powder method of x-ray and neutron diffraction, J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 51, 3583 (1982).
  14. L. Caretta, Y.-T. Shao, J. Yu, A. B. Mei, B. F. Grosso, C. Dai, P. Behera, D. Lee, M. McCarter, E. Parsonnet, et al., Non-volatile electric-field control of inversion symmetry, Nat. Mater. 22, 207 (2023).
  15. H. Fan, A. Proskurin, M. Song, and A. Bogdanov, Electric-field-induced second-harmonic generation, Opto-Electron. Adv. 9, 250193 (2026).
  16. See Supplemental Material at http://link.aps.org/supplemental/10.1103/mh4w-r8qw for Note 1: Profile of the applied electric field; Note 2: local variations; Note: EFISHG close to contacts; Note 4: White image of the Pt contacts configuration.
  17. Y. Liu, R. Niu, A. Majchrowski, K. Roleder, K. Cordero-Edwards, J. M. Cairney, J. Arbiol, and G. Catalan, Translational boundaries as incipient ferrielectric domains in antiferroelectric PbZrO3, Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 216801 (2023).
  18. G. A. Samara, Pressure and temperature dependence of the dielectric properties and phase transitions of the antiferroelectric perovskites: PbZrO3 and PbHfO3, Phys. Rev. B 1, 3777 (1970).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. Materials 10, L051401– Published 14 May, 2026
  • Received 2 February 2026
  • Revised 25 March 2026
  • Accepted 1 April 2026
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation