Advances in Ferroelectric/Piezoelectric Materials and Their Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Piezoelectrics can convert mechanical energy into electrical, and vice versa, thanks to their non-centrosymmetric crystal structure. Among piezoelectrics, ferroelectrics are a special multifunctional class with switchable spontaneous polarization. They have a wide range of applications from communications to health, energy, manufacturing, and the military, and are used in various devices such as memory elements, actuators, sensors, energy conversion and storage, pyroelectric infrared detectors, and optical integrated circuits. Though they were discovered more than a century ago and have undergone decades of development, ferroelectric/piezoelectric materials are still among the most used and studied materials in the scientific community and industry. Developments have been made, in terms of both their fundamental theories and applications, to meet society’s increasing energy and information technology requirements. For example, notable enhancements in their performance have been realized through crystal structure regulation, domain engineering, and microstructure adjustment based on a deeper understanding of ferroelectric/piezoelectric response mechanisms from nano- to macro-scale. Coupled with semiconductors, their applications are extended to optoelectronics, LEDs, photoelectrochemistry, quantum optics, memristors, etc. Additionally, by combining them with ferroelastic and ferromagnetic materials, multiferroic materials have been developed and applied. With the above progress comes new scientific and engineering challenges. Therefore, to promote the exchange of research on  ferroelectric/piezoelectric materials and their applications, Applied Sciences plans to launch a Special Issue entitled “Advances in Ferroelectric/Piezoelectric Materials and Their Applications”, focusing on state-of-the-art international advances in both fundamental and application-oriented research. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Modeling and simulation for ferroelectric/piezoelectric material design.
• Fundamental theories of ferroelectricity and piezoelectricity.
• New ferroelectric/piezoelectric materials: single crystal, ceramics, polymers, composites, films, etc.
• Novel technology in the preparation process of high-performance ferroelectric/piezoelectric materials.
• Innovative ferroelectric/piezoelectric devices: sensors, actuators, energy harvesters, etc.

Prof. Dr. Jie Shen
Prof. Dr. Jing Zhou
Guest Editors

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• ferroelectrics
• piezoelectrics
• devices
• preparation process
• material design
• ferro-/piezoelectric theory