Tailoring the negative electrocaloric effect of PbZrO3 antiferroelectric thin films by Yb doping

A novel electrocaloric material system, Yb doped PbZrO (PYZ) antiferroelectric (AFE) thin films with the content of Yb from 0 to 3.0 mol% were fabricated by the sol-gel method. The influence of the Yb contents on the orientation degree and the negative electrocaloric effect (NECE) of PYZ AFE thin films were investigated. We found a giant NECE (ΔT = −12.01 K) and an entropy variation of −11.8 J kg K for the 1.0 mol% Yb doped PbZrO thin films at 70 °C with the applied electric of 800 kV cm calculated on account of the Maxwell equation. These results suggested the large NECE can be acquired via Yb doping and raised hopes for the development mid- to large-scale solid-state cooling devices with high efficiency in combination with positive ECE.;A novel electrocaloric material system, Yb doped PbZrO (PYZ) antiferroelectric (AFE) thin films with the content of Yb from 0 to 3.0 mol% were fabricated by the sol-gel method. The influence of the Yb contents on the orientation degree and the negative electrocaloric effect (NECE) of PYZ AFE thin films were investigated. We found a giant NECE (ΔT = −12.01 K) and an entropy variation of −11.8 J kg K for the 1.0 mol% Yb doped PbZrO thin films at 70 °C with the applied electric of 800 kV cm calculated on account of the Maxwell equation. These results suggested the large NECE can be acquired via Yb doping and raised hopes for the development mid- to large-scale solid-state cooling devices with high efficiency in combination with positive ECE.