News Summary

• Ferroelectrics are different: they have a polarization even without an applied field.
• This polarization can also be reversed electrically, making them attractive for electronic memory applications.
• To be compatible with computer chips, the ferroelectric must generally be thin to enable the voltage, which is applied between the top and bottom surface, to be small.
• However, polarization directed towards the surfaces can become unstable in such thin films.
• Now, writing in Nature, Gupta et al.
• report a thin-film ferro electric in which the vertical polarization between theTop and bottom of the material is coupled to polarization in the larger horizontal dimension, enabling a small voltage to be used to control a large, stable polarization.