Department of Physics and Astronomy: Individual Faculty Pages
Alexei Gruverman Publications
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Document Type
Article
Date of this Version
4-6-2012
Abstract
Ferroelectric materials are characterized by a permanent electric dipole that can be reversed through the application of an external voltage, but a strong intrinsic coupling between polarization and deformation also causes all ferroelectrics to be piezoelectric, leading to applications in sensors and high-displacement actuators. A less explored property is flexoelectricity, the coupling between polarization and a strain gradient. We demonstrate that the stress gradient generated by the tip of an atomic force microscope can mechanically switch the polarization in the nanoscale volume of a ferroelectric film. Pure mechanical force can therefore be used as a dynamic tool for polarization control and may enable applications in which memory bits are written mechanically and read electrically.
Inlcudes supplementary materials.
Comments
Published in Science vol. 336, no. 6077 (April 6, 2012), pp. 59–61; doi: 10.1126/science.1218693 Online at http://www.sciencemag.org/content/ 336/6077/59.abstract Copyright © 2012 American Association for the Advancement of Science. Used by permission.