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Special Issue Editors

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This year, we commemorate 100 years since the discovery of ferroelectric materials and observation of their unusual properties by J. Valasek in Rochelle salt. Ferroelectric materials possess high spontaneous electrical polarization which can be switched reversibly between two or more ground states. Moreover, they have strong ferroelectricity, pronounced electrooptic and pyroelectric effects, extraordinary coupling with magnetic and stress fields, high photovoltaic efficiency, etc. Ferroelectric have been discovered in a variety of materials, but they have become particularly useful in the form of thin and thick films. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the discovery of ferroelectricity, this Special Issue will provide a deep overview and the most recent advances in various topics related to ferroelectric films and their many applications, leading to huge progress in the understanding of their processing, fundamental properties, and development of microdevices. We look for papers presenting the latest developments and most cutting-edge studies in this area. The following is a list of some of the topics proposed for this Special Issue:

Fundamentals of ferroelectric films;
Advanced processing of ferroelectric films;
Nanoscale characterization of ferroelectrics;
Energy harvesting applications;
Sensors and actuators, MEMS;
Domain and domain wall engineering;
Solid-state refrigeration;
Ferroelectric memories;
Topological ferroelectricity;
Multiferroics;
Machine learning for ferroelectrics research.

Prof. Dr. Andrei Kholkin
Dr. Vladimir Shvartsman
Guest Editors

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Keywords

Ferroelectric
Thin films
Domains and domain walls
Electrocaloric effect
Multiferroics
Energy harvesting
Piezoresponse force microscopy
MEMS
Piezoelectrics

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

9 pages, 2487 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Band Gap of Pb(Fe_0.5Nb_0.5)O₃ Thin Films Prepared by Pulsed Laser Deposition

by Nicole Bartek, Vladimir V. Shvartsman, Houssny Bouyanfif, Alexander Schmitz, Gerd Bacher, Selina Olthof, Svetlana Sirotinskaya, Niels Benson and Doru C. Lupascu

Materials 2021, 14(22), 6841; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14226841 - 12 Nov 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2147

Abstract

Ferroelectric materials have gained high interest for photovoltaic applications due to their open-circuit voltage not being limited to the band gap of the material. In the past, different lead-based ferroelectric perovskite thin films such as Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ (Pb,La)(Zr,Ti)O₃ and PbTiO₃ were investigated with respect to their photovoltaic efficiency. Nevertheless, due to their high band gaps they only absorb photons in the UV spectral range. The well-known ferroelectric PbFe_0.5Nb_0.5O₃ (PFN), which is in a structure similar to the other three, has not been considered as a possible candidate until now. We found that the band gap of PFN is around 2.75 eV and that the conductivity can be increased from 23 S/µm to 35 S/µm during illumination. The relatively low band gap value makes PFN a promising candidate as an absorber material. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Synthesis, Characterization, and Applications of Ferroelectric Films)

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Figure 1

7 pages, 4780 KiB

Open AccessCommunication

Local Piezoelectric Properties of Doped Biomolecular Crystals

by Andrei Kholkin, Denis Alikin, Vladimir Shur, Shiri Dishon, David Ehre and Igor Lubomirsky

Materials 2021, 14(17), 4922; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14174922 - 30 Aug 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1909

Abstract

Piezoelectricity is the ability of certain crystals to generate mechanical strain proportional to an external electric field. Though many biomolecular crystals contain polar molecules, they are frequently centrosymmetric, signifying that the dipole moments of constituent molecules cancel each other. However, piezoelectricity can be induced by stereospecific doping leading to symmetry reduction. Here, we applied piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM), highly sensitive to local piezoelectricity, to characterize

(0 \bar{1} 0)

faces of a popular biomolecular material, α-glycine, doped with other amino acids such as L-alanine and L-threonine as well as co-doped with both. We show that, while apparent vertical piezoresponse is prone to parasitic electrostatic effects, shear piezoelectric activity is strongly affected by doping. Undoped α-glycine shows no shear piezoelectric response at all. The shear response of the L-alanine doped crystals is much larger than those of the L-threonine doped crystals and co-doped crystals. These observations are rationalized in terms of host–guest molecule interactions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Synthesis, Characterization, and Applications of Ferroelectric Films)

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