English: Piezoresponse Force Microscopy image of 180 degree domains and line profiles (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
“This experiment with ferroelectric domains demonstrates the possibility of memcomputing.”
Unexpected behavior in ferroelectric materials explored by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory supports a new approach to information storage and processing.
Ferroelectric materials are known for their ability to spontaneously switch polarization when an electric field is applied. Using a scanning probe microscope, the ORNL-led team took advantage of this property to draw areas of switched polarization called domains on the surface of a ferroelectric material. To the researchers’ surprise, when written in dense arrays, the domains began forming complex and unpredictable patterns on the material’s surface.
“When we reduced the distance between domains, we started to see things that should have been completely impossible,” said ORNL’s Anton Ievlev, the first author on the paper published in Nature Physics. “All of a sudden, when we tried to draw a domain, it wouldn’t form, or it would form in an alternating pattern like a checkerboard. At first glance, it didn’t make any sense. We thought that when a domain forms, it forms. It shouldn’t be dependent on surrounding domains.”
After studying patterns of domain formation under varying conditions, the researchers realized the complex behavior could be explained through chaos theory. One domain would suppress the creation of a second domain nearby but facilitate the formation of one farther away — a precondition of chaotic behavior, says ORNL’s Sergei Kalinin, who led the study.
“Chaotic behavior is generally realized in time, not in space,” he said. ”An example is a dripping faucet: sometimes the droplets fall in a regular pattern, sometimes not, but it is a time-dependent process. To see chaotic behavior realized in space, as in our experiment, is highly unusual.”
Collaborator Yuriy Pershin of the University of South Carolina explains that the team’s system possesses key characteristics needed for memcomputing, an emergent computing paradigm in which information storage and processing occur on the same physical platform.
“Memcomputing is basically how the human brain operates: Neurons and their connections–synapses–can store and process information in the same location,” Pershin said. “This experiment with ferroelectric domains demonstrates the possibility of memcomputing.”
Encoding information in the domain radius could allow researchers to create logic operations on a surface of ferroelectric material, thereby combining the locations of information storage and processing.
The researchers note that although the system in principle has a universal computing ability, much more work is required to design a commercially attractive all-electronic computing device based on the domain interaction effect.
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Memcomputing
The Latest Bing News on:
Memcomputing
- Feed has no items.
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Ferroelectric domains
The Latest Bing News on:
Ferroelectric domains
- Global Inorganic Ferroelectric Materials Market Evolution Segmentation and Insight of Trends 2022 to 2028on July 27, 2022 at 8:53 am
In conclusion, the study thoroughly examines the Inorganic Ferroelectric Materials market by assessing the different industrial segments. It looks at the domain further by explaining the ...
- Piezo Motors and Actuators: Medical Device Performanceon July 24, 2022 at 5:00 pm
Piezoelectric ceramics consist of ferroelectric materials and quartz ... Polarization is achieved using high electric fields to align material domains along a primary axis. Piezoelectric actuators in ...
- Resolving the 3D Ferroelectric Domain Wall Behavioron July 20, 2022 at 10:22 pm
Ferroelectric domain walls are small-sized quasi-two-dimensional (2D) systems with great potential in developing memristor technology, non-volatile memory, and electronic components. The instantaneous ...
- How ultrathin polymer films can be used for storage technologyon July 18, 2022 at 12:02 pm
Precisely applied mechanical pressure can improve the electronic properties of a widely used polymer material. This requires that the material be mechanically processed to an accuracy of a few ...
- How ultrathin polymer films can be used for storage technologyon July 18, 2022 at 11:21 am
"PVDF is also a ferroelectric material ... can be controlled and reoriented at the nano level. The electrical domains created in this way are extremely stable and were still intact four years ...
- NGI uses twist to engineer 2D semiconductors with built-in memory functionson March 1, 2022 at 5:43 am
Kelvin probe force microscopy revealed that neighbouring domains are oppositely polarised and electrical transport measurements demonstrated reliable ferroelectric switching at room temperature. The ...
- click photo to view full albumon December 10, 2021 at 11:03 am
The talks covered subjects ranging from piezoelectric thin film MEMS and planar nanostructures for optoelectronic applications, to ferroelectric domains and conductance of defects, as well as ...
- YOKOYAMA Nano structured Liquid Crystalon April 21, 2018 at 5:21 am
Due to the four-fold rotational symmetry of the pattern, the two diagonal axes of the square domain become equally stable directions ... and found to exhibit a wide temperature range of stable ...
- Ajit Achuthanon August 25, 2017 at 8:33 am
A. Achuthan, C. T. Sun. A study of mechanisms of domain switching in a ferroelectric material via loading rate effect. Acta Materialia, 57(13), (2009), 3868–3875. A. Achuthan and C. T. Sun, “Domain ...