Chemically Tunable Textured Interfacial Defects in PbZrO₃-Based Antiferroelectric Perovskite Oxides

Antiferroelectric perovskite oxides, which can undergo ultrafast charge/discharge with a large energy storage density, are among the most important functional materials for applications in pulsed power capacitors. Owing to the complex modulation of atomic displacement, a variety of interfacial defects have been observed within a single antiferroelectric domain. However, the intercorrelation between different interfacial defects is still less understood. Here, we report the finding of the evolution of interfacial defects by compositional design in PbZrO3-based ceramics, which can be tailored in the form of either antiphase boundaries or nanophase boundaries. We demonstrate that such an evolution is closely correlated with the degree of displacement ordering, which can be modified by chemical disorder in a sublattice and/or additional ferroelectric–antiferroelectric competition. There is an obvious difference in the local behavior of lattice spacing across antiphase boundaries and nanophase boundaries. Our study enriches the knowledge of modulated structures in perovskite oxides and offers a basis for defect engineering.