Double hysteresis loops in proper uniaxial ferroelectrics

Abstract

For the first time in a bulk proper uniaxial ferroelectrics, double antiferroelectric-like hysteresis loops have been observed in the case of Sn2P2S6 crystal. The quantum anharmonic oscillator model was proposed for description of such polarization switching process. This phenomenon is related to three-well local potential of spontaneous polarization fluctuations at peculiar negative ratio of coupling constants which correspond to inter-site interaction in given sublattice and interaction between two sublattices of Sn2P2S6 modeled crystal structure. Obtained data can be used for development of triple-level cell type memory technology.