Monte Carlo Investigation of Ferroelectric Properties in Thin Films

Abstract

In this work, the ferroelectric hysteresis in thin films was investigated with Monte Carlo simulation using the DIFFOUR Hamiltonian and the Metropolis algorithm. The field frequency, the filed amplitude and the thickness dependence of hysteresis properties were found. For instance, at high enough field, the area increases, maintains and reduces with increasing frequency. However, with increasing the film’s thickness, the area increases over the whole considered frequencies, and the frequency at maximum area shifts to a lower frequency due to the stronger ferroelectric coupling in thicker films. This strongly indicates the thickness dependence of the ferroelectric hysteresis. In addition, the power law scaling relation between the hysteresis properties and input parameters, which are the film’s thickness and the field parameters, were proposed. The scaling exponents were compared and discussed with previous investigations on thin ferroelectric films.