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Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have developed a new technique to observe small structures called domain walls in materials known as ferroelectrics. 

What Are Ferroelectrics?

They are special materials that naturally align their electric charges in a specific way, a property called polarization. 

It can change this alignment by applying an electric field. This ability makes ferroelectrics ideal for storing and processing information in devices like computer memory or sensors.

Within ferroelectrics, domain walls are the boundaries separating regions with different electric or magnetic properties. For example, a domain wall might conduct electricity even if the rest of the material doesn’t, or it might show magnetic behavior in a non-magnetic material.

Significance of the Research

Modern data centers, which power the internet and cloud computing, consume as much energy as small cities, and their energy use is growing rapidly. Most electronics depend on silicon, which is less efficient for certain tasks.

Ferroelectrics could replace silicon in some applications, processing and storing data with far less energy. However, to harness their potential, scientists need to understand how domain walls move and behave at scales thousands of times smaller than a human hair.

ORNL’s new technique, called scanning oscillator piezoresponse force microscopy, acts like a high-speed camera, capturing every moment of the domain walls’ movement. 

Source: 

PHYS