Invited Paper MG+MI+NS-ThM5
New Ferroelectrics and Antiferroelectrics by Design

Thursday, October 31, 2013, 9:20 am, Room 202 B

I will describe our work on the design and discovery of new classes of ferroelectric and antiferroelectric materials using a combined crystallographic database / first principles approach. For ferroelectrics, using the design principle that any polar structure type can have ferroelectric representatives if the barrier to switching is lowered by appropriate chemical variation, we have recently identified a new family of ferroelectrics in the intermetallic LiGaGe structure type. For antiferroelectrics, we used a design principle based on the close relationship between ferroelectrics and antiferroelectrics to identify a previously unrecognized class of antiferroelectrics, related to the LiGaGe-type ferroelectrics, in the MgSrSi structure type. The further development of design principles and their application will be discussed. The discovery of new classes of antiferroelectrics is expected to open the way to increased recognition and application of antiferroelectrics as functional materials.