Giant negative electrocaloric effect in antiferroelectric La-modified PbZrO3 thin films within wide temperature range

Abstract Antiferroelectric thin films have exhibited outstanding negative electrocaloric effect (ECE), which are potential candidate regarding to the solid-state refrigeration technology. In this work, Pb0.97La0.02ZrO3 (PLZ) antiferroelectric thin films were prepared on LaNiO3(LNO)/Pt electrode and LNO electrode by sol-gel method. Giant negative electrocaloric effect (ΔT ~ −13.2 K) can observed in wide temperature range (213–493 K) that deposited on composite electrode, which can be attributed to better electric conductivity of LNO/Pt composite electrode than LNO electrode. In addition to outstanding negative ECE, positive ECE also can be obtained near curie temperature, which is caused by phase transition from ferroelectric (FE) to paraelectric (PE) state. The optimized ECE property contributed to the phase transition and introduction of composite electrode, which pave the giant prospect considering high-efficiency solid-state refrigeration devices through combination of positive and negative ECE.