Engineered local polarization disorder unlocks record efficiency in antiferroelectric capacitors

作者：Fukang Chen, Leiyang Zhang, Yule Yang, Ruiyi Jing, Yunyao Huang, Kaiyuan Liu, Zibin Chen, Li He, Dong Wang, Bin Zhou, Xuefeng Chen, Gang Liu, Hua Tan, Haibo Zhang, Jie Yang, Shujun Zhang, J H Li · 发表于：Nature Communications · 年份：2026 · DOI：10.1038/s41467-026-72274-2 · 被引用次数：2 · 研究领域：Ferroelectric and Piezoelectric Materials、Ferroelectric and Negative Capacitance Devices、Multiferroics and related materials

Antiferroelectric ceramics are promising for next-generation electrostatic energy storage, yet their performance is fundamentally constrained by the trade-off between high energy storage efficiency (η) and large recoverable energy storage density (Wrec), arising from the antiferroelectric-to-ferroelectric phase transition and associated hysteresis loss. Here, we show that a combination of engineered local polarization disorder and high-field operability enables a highly favorable balance of these metrics. In PbZrO3-based ceramics, we introduced controlled compositional heterogeneity that broadens polarization vector distributions while preserving the antiferroelectric modulation. Phase-field simulations and experiments indicate that this engineered disorder spatially distributes the switching fields associated with the antiferroelectric–ferroelectric transition, thereby reducing polarization hysteresis while maintaining high polarization strength. As a result, the multilayer ceramic capacitors achieve Wrec = 23.2 J cm−3 and η = 98.1% at 167 kV mm−1, corresponding to a figure of merit of 1220, surpassing most reported state-of-the-art multilayer ceramic capacitors under comparable high-field conditions. These findings highlight local polarization disorder as a key mechanism that, in combination with enhanced breakdown strength, enables ultrahigh energy storage performance and offers a promising route toward high-performance capacitive energy storage for advanced pulsed-power a...