Ultrahigh electromechanical response from competing ferroic orders

Materials with electromechanical coupling are essential for transducers and acoustic devices as reversible converters between mechanical and electrical energy^1–6. High electromechanical responses are typically found in materials with strong structural instabilities, conventionally achieved by two strategies—morphotropic phase boundaries⁷ and nanoscale structural heterogeneity⁸. Here we demonstrate a different strategy to accomplish ultrahigh electromechanical response by inducing extreme structural instability from competing antiferroelectric and ferroelectric orders. Guided by the phase diagram and theoretical calculations, we designed the coexistence of antiferroelectric orthorhombic and ferroelectric rhombohedral phases in sodium niobate thin films. These films show effective piezoelectric coefficients above 5,000 pm V⁻¹ because of electric-field-induced antiferroelectric–ferroelectric phase transitions. Our results provide a general approach to design and exploit antiferroelectric materials for electromechanical devices.