Phenomenological model for the antiferroelectric phase transition in thin films and small particles

A phenomenological Landau model for the antiferroelectric phase transition in thin films and small cylindrical and spherical particles is developed. T he boundary value problem was solved numerically for polarizations of polar sublattices and components of the susceptibility tensor. The spatial distr ibution of polarization and susceptibility and their temperature dependence s were calculated. The enhancement of diagonal components of the susceptibi lity tensor compared to bulk was found. The size-dependent shift of the ant iferroelectric phase transition temperature was obtained. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.