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Science 11 June 2004:
Vol. 304. no. 5677, pp. 1650 - 1653
DOI: 10.1126/science.1098252
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Reports

Ferroelectricity in Ultrathin Perovskite Films

Dillon D. Fong,1 G. Brian Stephenson,1* Stephen K. Streiffer,1 Jeffrey A. Eastman,1 Orlando Auciello,1 Paul H. Fuoss,1 Carol Thompson2

Understanding the suppression of ferroelectricity in perovskite thin films is a fundamental issue that has remained unresolved for decades. We report a synchrotron x-ray study of lead titanate as a function of temperature and film thickness for films as thin as a single unit cell. At room temperature, the ferroelectric phase is stable for thicknesses down to 3 unit cells (1.2 nanometers). Our results imply that no thickness limit is imposed on practical devices by an intrinsic ferroelectric size effect.

1 Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439, USA.
2 Department of Physics, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: stephenson{at}anl.gov

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