Shimmering ferroelectric domains
Friday, July 18, 2008 - 05:56
in Physics & Chemistry
Ferroelectric materials are named after ferromagnetic ones because they behave in a similar way. The main difference: these materials are not magnetic, but permanently electrically polarized. They have great importance for data storage technology and novel piezoelectric devices. Dresden scientists were able to produce microscopic images of ferroelectric domains - tiny regions of a ferroelectric material -, where the electric polarization points into different directions. These results were published in the journal Physical Review Letters recently.