The nature of ferroelectricity under pressure

Advances in first-principles computational approaches have, over the past fifteen years, made possible the investigation of physical properties of ferroelectric systems. In particular, such approaches have led to a microscopic understanding of the occurrence of ferroelectricity in perovskite oxides at ambient pressure. In this paper, we report ab-initio studies on the effect of hydrostatic pressure on the ferroelectricity in perovskites and related materials. We found that, unlike commonly believed, these materials exhibit ferroelectricity at high enough pressure. We also explained in details the (unusual) nature of this ferroelectricity. ∗Also at Novgorod State University, Russia; Electronic address: [email protected]