News tagged with ferroelectrics

An unlikely route to ferroelectricity

(Phys.org) -- Ferroelectricity, which was first observed in the 1940s, is an interesting phenomenon involving the spontaneous (non-induced) formation of charge polarization (separation of charge) in certain ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created May 18, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (4) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Energy harvesting skin generates power from air conditioners

(PhysOrg.com) -- Devices that harvest ambient energy from the surrounding environment have become popular since, for some applications, they eliminate the need for batteries that must constantly be replaced. ...

Technology / Engineering

created Apr 20, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 7 | with audio podcast feature

Ferroelectrics could pave way for ultra-low power computing

Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, have shown that it is possible to reduce the minimum voltage necessary to store charge in a capacitor, an achievement that could reduce the power draw and ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created Sep 12, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (11) | comments 17 | with audio podcast

An electronic bucket brigade could boost solar cell voltages

If solar cells could generate higher voltages when sunlight falls on them, they'd produce more electrical power more efficiently. For over half a century scientists have known that ferroelectrics, materials ...

Physics / General Physics

created Sep 15, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (8) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Shocking: Environmental chemistry affects ferroelectric film polarity the same way electric voltage does

(PhysOrg.com) -- “Ferroelectric materials are interesting scientifically, and, while they are used for some things now, they are potentially useful for even more applications in the future,” Brian Stephenson tells PhysOrg.com. Stephe ...

Physics / General Physics

created Feb 02, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (9) | comments 2 feature

Data storage takes an electric turn

(PhysOrg.com) -- German scientists from the Forschungszentrum Julich and the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Halle have discovered the basis for the next generation of memory devices. In ...

Physics / General Physics

created Mar 29, 2011 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (7) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Fundamental discovery could lead to better memory chips

(PhysOrg.com) -- Engineering researchers at the University of Michigan have found a way to improve the performance of ferroelectric materials, which have the potential to make memory devices with more storage ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Mar 15, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Rare coupling of magnetic and electric properties in a single material

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have observed a new way that magnetic and electric properties — which have a long history of ignoring and counteracting each ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created Jul 25, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (15) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Heated AFM tip allows direct fabrication of ferroelectric nanostructures on plastic

Using a technique known as thermochemical nanolithography (TCNL), researchers have developed a new way to fabricate nanometer-scale ferroelectric structures directly on flexible plastic substrates that would ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Jul 18, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Scientists watch a next-generation ferroelectric memory bit switch in real time

For the first time, engineering researchers have been able to watch in real time the nanoscale process of a ferroelectric memory bit switching between the 0 and 1 states.

Physics / General Physics

created Nov 17, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Researchers 'stretch' a lackluster material into a possible electronics revolution

It's the Clark Kent of oxide compounds, and - on its own - it is pretty boring. But slice europium titanate nanometers thin and physically stretch it, and then it takes on super hero-like properties that could ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created Aug 18, 2010 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (24) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Scientists use LCLS to see photovoltaic process in action

(PhysOrg.com) -- A surprising atomic-scale wiggle underlies the way a special class of materials reacts to light, according to research that may lead to new devices for harvesting solar energy.

Physics / General Physics

created Feb 29, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

New technique produces free-standing piezoelectric ferroelectric nanostructures from PZT material

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have developed a “soft template infiltration” technique for fabricating free-standing piezoelectrically active ferroelectric nanotubes and other nanostructures from PZT ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Feb 22, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Ferroelectric switching discovered for first time in soft biological tissue

The heart's inner workings are mysterious, perhaps even more so with a new finding. Engineers at the University of Washington have discovered an electrical property in arteries not seen before in mammalian ...

Physics / General Physics

created Jan 30, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Ferroelectric oxides do the twist

(Phys.org) -- Some materials, by their nature, do what we want them to do -- notably, the ubiquitous, semiconducting silicon found in almost every electronic device. But sometimes, naturally occurring materials ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created Apr 12, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Ferroelectricity

Ferroelectricity is a property of certain materials which possess a spontaneous electric polarization that can be reversed by the application of an external electric field. The term is used in analogy to ferromagnetism, in which a material exhibits a permanent magnetic moment. Ferromagnetism was already known when ferroelectricity was discovered in 1920 in Rochelle salt by Valasek. Thus, the prefix ferro, meaning iron, was used to describe the property despite the fact that most ferroelectric materials do not contain iron.

For more information about Ferroelectricity, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.