Enhanced Energy-Storage Performance of an All-Inorganic, Antiferroelectric, Thin-Film via Orientation Adjustments

An all-inorganic Pb
_0.99
Nb
_0.02
(Zr
_0.85
Sn
_0.13
Ti
_0.02
)
_0.98
O
₃
(PNZST) antiferroelectric (AFE) thin film was designed to enhance its energy-storage performance by adjusting its orientation. Using a radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering technology, 450-nm-PNZST AFE films with (111), (110), and (100) crystal orientations were successfully prepared. All the films showed a dense microstructure and the highly preferred orientations were determined by the orientation of the bottom electrodes. Moreover, the preferred orientation of the AFE thin film had a great influence on the dielectric and energy-storage properties. Meanwhile, the energy storage density of the PNZST AFE thin film with the (100) orientation reached 33.7 J cm
⁻³
, which was 43 % higher than that of PNZST AFE thin film with a (111) orientation. All of these results shed light on how the energy-storage performance of PNZST AFE thin films can be enhanced and optimized by adjusting its orientation. This offers a new strategy and innovation, which opens up a route to practical applications in micro-energy-storage systems.