Well-defined double hysteresis loop in NaNbO3 antiferroelectrics

Antiferroelectrics (AFEs) are promising candidates in energy-storage capacitors, electrocaloric solid-cooling, and displacement transducers. As an actively studied lead-free antiferroelectric (AFE) material, NaNbO 3 has long suffered from its ferroelectric (FE)-like polarization-electric field ( P - E ) hysteresis loops with high remnant polarization and large hysteresis. Guided by theoretical calculations, a new strategy of reducing the oxygen octahedral tilting angle is proposed to stabilize the AFE P phase (Space group Pbma) of NaNbO 3 . To validate this, we judiciously introduced CaHfO 3 with a low Goldschmidt tolerance factor and AgNbO 3 with a low electronegativity difference into NaNbO 3 , the decreased cation displacements and [BO 6 ] octahedral tilting angles were confirmed by Synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction and aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy. Of particular importance is that the 0.75NaNbO 3 −0.20AgNbO 3 −0.05CaHfO 3 ceramic exhibits highly reversible phase transition between the AFE and FE states, showing well-defined double P - E loops and sprout-shaped strain-electric field curves with reduced hysteresis, low remnant polarization, high AFE-FE phase transition field, and zero negative strain. Our work provides a new strategy for designing NaNbO 3 -based AFE material with well-defined double P - E loops, which can also be extended to discover a variety of new lead-free AFEs. Here, the authors design NaNbO 3 based ceramics with the aim of enabling a field-induced reversible phase transformation between the antiferroelectric and ferroelectric phases, which manifests itself in a well-defined double hysteresis loop in the P - E hysteresis curve.