Ferroelectric and Piezoelectric Materials

Ferroelectric and piezoelectric materials are solids that couple mechanical strain to electrical polarization, making them essential to sensors, actuators, medical imaging, and energy harvesting. Much of the chemistry centers on the perovskite crystal structure, whose precisely tunable composition allows researchers to engineer properties such as piezoelectric response, polarization switching, and the electrocaloric effect—a reversible temperature change driven by an applied electric field. A pressing open question is how to replace the high-performing but environmentally hazardous lead zirconate titanate ceramics with lead-free alternatives, particularly bismuth- and sodium-based perovskites, without sacrificing the exceptional electromechanical properties industry demands. Alongside bulk materials, researchers are increasingly exploring thin-film ferroelectrics and the physics of domain walls—the nanoscale boundaries between differently polarized regions—as functional elements in their own right, opening a potential path toward domain-wall-based nanoelectronics.

Works

107,853

Total citations

2,034,896

Keywords

Lead-free PiezoceramicsFerroelectric MaterialsPiezoelectric PropertiesPerovskite StructureRelaxor FerroelectricsThin Film Ferroelectrics