Enhancement of charge and energy storage in PbZrO3 thin films by local field engineering

A method to improve charge and energy storage performance of PbZrO3 (PZO) thin films by α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles (NPs) doping is proposed. The PZO thin films were deposited on Pt(111)/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates by a chemical solution deposition method. The effect of α-Fe2O3 NPs doping on structure and electrical properties has been investigated in detail. A maximum polarization (Pmax) of ∼78 μC/cm2 and a recoverable energy density as high as ∼17.4 J/cm3 have been achieved in the α-Fe2O3 NPs doped PZO thin films at ∼600 kV/cm, which are increased by 69.6% and 65.7% compared to the un-doped PZO thin films, respectively. The tremendous enhancement of charge and energy storage can be attributed to local field engineering.