Electric dipole sheets in BaTiO₃/BaZrO₃ superlattices

We investigate two-dimensional electric dipole sheets in the superlattice made of BaTiO$_{3}$ and BaZrO$_{3}$ using first-principles-based Monte-Carlo simulations and density functional calculations. Electric dipole domains and complex patterns are observed and the complex dipole structures with various symmetries (e.g. Pma2, Cmcm and Pmc2_{1}) are further confirmed by density functional calculations, which are found to be almost degenerate in energy with the ferroelectric ground state of the Amm2 symmetry, therefore strongly resembling magnetic sheets. More complex dipole patterns, including vortices and anti-vortices, are also observed, which may constitute the intermediate states that overcome the high energy barrier of different polarization orientations previously predicted by Lebedev\onlinecite{Lebedev2013}. We also show that such system possesses large electrostrictive effects that may be technologically important.