Pristupačnost
Date: Wednesday, 03/06/2026
Time: 15:15
Place: F08
Wherefore nanoscale ferroelectricity?
(Nives Štrkalj, Institute of Physics, Zagreb)
Ferroelectricity is the spontaneous ordering of electric dipoles into a polar state that can be reversed by the application of an electric field. This switchable order makes ferroelectric films natural candidates for information storage and motivates their exploration in energy-efficient electronics. In this talk, I will introduce the origins of ferroelectricity and discuss why bringing ferroelectrics to the nanoscale is both attractive and challenging. I will show how interfaces, through elastic and electrostatic boundary conditions, strongly modify polarization in ultrathin films. Although polarization commonly suppresses as thickness is reduced in classical ferroelectrics, I will show how screening can instead be engineered to stabilize polarization down to the unit-cell limit. I will then turn to novel hafnia-based ferroelectric thin films, where ferroelectricity unexpectedly emerges at the nanoscale in a material that is non-polar in bulk. Understanding the emergence of polarization in these films may provide design principles for stabilizing nanoscale ferroelectricity in classical ferroelectrics, whose substantially lower switching fields remain attractive for energy-efficient operation. Together, these examples highlight how scaling and interfacial boundary conditions transform the stability and switching of polar order.