Collaborative Research: Extrinsic Size Effects in Ferroelectric Thin Films

NON-TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: Ferroelectric materials are used to couple electrical and mechanical energy and store information. Therefore, they are used pervasively as sensors, actuators, and energy and memory storage components in microelectronics, ultrasonic devices, and consumer products. The properties of ferroelectric materials can change significantly as their size is reduced. In ferroelectric thin films, it is now widely recognized that significant size effects are observed at film thicknesses between 10 nm and 1 um. At these thicknesses, the effectiveness of these materials at storing and transducing energy is dramatically reduced - in some cases being suppressed to