Turning ABO₃ antiferroelectrics into ferroelectrics: Design rules for practical rotation-driven ferroelectricity in double perovskites and A₃B₂O₇ Ruddlesden-Popper compounds

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Ferroic transition metal oxides, which exhibit spontaneous elastic, electrical, magnetic or toroidal order, exhibit functional properties that find use in ultrastable solid-state memories to sensors and medical imaging technologies. To realize multifunctional behavior, where one order parameter can be coupled to the conjugate field of another order parameter, however, requires a common microscopic origin for the long-range order. Here, we formulate a complete theory for a novel form of ferroelectricity, whereby a spontaneous and switchable polarization emerges from the destruction of an antiferroelectric state due to octahedral rotations and ordered cation sublattices. We then construct a materials design framework based on crystal-chemistry descriptors rooted in group theory, which enables the facile design of artificial oxides with large electric polarizations, P, simultaneous with small energetic switching barriers between +P and -P. We validate the theory with first principles density functional calculations on more than 16 perovskite-structured oxides, illustrating it could be operative in any materials classes exhibiting two- or three-dimensional corner-connected octahedral frameworks. We show the principles governing materials selection of the "layered" systems originate in the lattice dynamics of the A cation displacements stabilized by the pervasive BO₆ rotations of single phase ABO₃ materials, whereby the latter distortions govern the optical band gaps, magnetic order and critical transition temperatures. Our approach provides the elusive route to the ultimate multifunctionality property control by an external electric field.