Surface Piezoelectricity of (0001) Sapphire

Alexandru B. Georgescu and Sohrab Ismail-Beigi

Phys. Rev. Applied 11, 064065 – Published 27 June 2019

Abstract

Interfaces of sapphire are of technological relevance as sapphire is used as a substrate in electronics, lasers, and Josephson junctions for quantum devices. In addition, its surface is potentially useful in catalysis. Using first-principles calculations, we show that, unlike bulk sapphire, which has inversion symmetry, the (0001) sapphire surface is piezoelectric. The inherent broken symmetry at the surface leads to a surface dipole and a significant response to imposed strain: the magnitude of the surface piezoelectricity is comparable to that of bulk piezoelectrics.

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Received 25 March 2018
Revised 30 April 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.11.064065

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Electric polarization Lattice dynamics Piezoelectricity Structural properties Surface & interfacial phenomena

Functional materials Oxides

Spacetime symmetries

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Alexandru B. Georgescu^1,2,3,* and Sohrab Ismail-Beigi^1,2,4,5

¹Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA
²Center for Research on Interface Structure and Phenomena, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA
³Center for Computational Quantum Physics, The Flatiron Institute, 162 5th Avenue, New York, New York 10010, USA
⁴Department of Applied Physics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA
⁵Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA