Quantum fluctuation of ferroelectric order in polar metals

Abstract

The polar metallic phase is an unusual metallic phase of matter containing long-range ferroelectric (FE) order in the electronic and atomic structure. Distinct from the typical FE insulating phase, this phase spontaneously breaks the inversion symmetry without global polarization. Unexpectedly, the FE order is found to be dramatically suppressed and destroyed at moderate ∼10% carrier density. Here, we propose a general mechanism based on carrier-induced quantum fluctuations to explain this puzzling phenomenon. The quantum kinetic effect would drive the formation of polaronic quasi-particles made of the carriers and their surrounding dipoles. The disruption in dipolar directions can therefore weaken or even destroy the FE order. We demonstrate such polaron formation and the associated FE suppression via a concise model using exact diagonalization, perturbation, and quantum Monte Carlo approaches. This quantum mechanism also provides an intuitive picture for many puzzling experimental findings, thereby facilitating new designs of multifunctional FE electronic devices augmented with quantum effects.