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Magnetoelectric composites of magnetic and ferroelectric components are promising for their use in applications such as information storage. Here, the authors find that magnetic quasiparticles embedded in a ferroelectric film matrix show promising properties compared to the usual thin-film architectures.

Information on how oxygen ions transport is crucial to understanding field-induced phase transformations in materials. Here, Zhang et al. directly image atomic-scale oxygen migration and the subsequent structural reconstruction in a SrCoO_2.5-σ film in the presence of an electric field.

Targeted multielement substitution of a lead-free relaxor ferroelectric perovskite distorts the lattice structure and induces strong polar disorder, leading to high-polar-entropy ferroelectric oxides with a high electrocaloric effect and long lifetime.

Polar skyrmions are nanoscale topological structures of electric polarizations. Their collective modes, dubbed as “skyrons”, are discovered by the terahertz-field-excitation, femtosecond x-ray diffraction measurements and advanced modeling.

By controlling oxygen partial pressure, this study coerces Mn and Fe into divalent states, stabilizing seven new high-entropy rock salt oxides, and introduces oxygen chemical potential as a key design axis for predictive synthesis.

The authors develop a transparent ultrasonic transducer using Pb(In_1/2Nb_1/2)O₃- Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃-PbTiO₃ crystals, achieving enhanced sensitivity and bandwidth for photoacoustic microscopic imaging. This advancement enables dynamic microvascular monitoring, enhancing applications in brain research.

High-entropy ceramic dielectrics show promise for capacitive energy storage but struggle due to vast composition possibilities. Here, the authors propose a generative learning approach for finding high-energy-density high-entropy dielectrics in a practically infinite exploration space of over 10¹¹ combinations.

The authors present a process that boosts the piezoelectric properties of ScAlN thin films by 3.5 times, enhancing their performance for use in acoustic devices. The technique is scalable, cost effective, and could enable advanced sensors, clocks, and communication technologies.

A study reports and characterizes a high-entropy electrocaloric polymer that switches under low fields, and discusses its potential suitability for use in caloric heat pumps.

High-entropy systems can present a range of striking physical properties, but mainly involve metal alloys. Here, using low-energy proton irradiation, a high-entropy superparaelectric phase is generated in a relaxor ferroelectric composition, increasing polarizability and enabling a capacitive energy density of 45.7 J cm^–3.

The piezoelectricity of PVDF composites is mainly determined by the crystalline phases and spontaneous polarization. Here, the authors propose a Ti₃C₂T_x anchoring method to modulate the molecular interactions and conformation of polymer matrix.

Ferroelectric domain walls have been extensively explored for nanoelectronics, but the logic devices are still challenging. Here, the authors propose programmable logic gates and circuits based on electric-field controllable conductive domain walls.

Despite various known topological polar structures, the dynamic property of isolated ones is still poorly understood. Here, the authors show the controlled nucleation and ability to move of isolated three-fold vertices under an applied electric field.

This study reports that incorporating non-polar nanodomains into antiferroelectrics greatly enhanced the energy density and efficiency.

The addition of boron nitride nanosheets to polymer nanocomposites creates dielectric materials that operate at much higher working temperatures than previous polymer dielectrics, as well as being flexible, lightweight, photopatternable, scalable and robust, which now makes them more attractive for electronic device applications than ceramic dielectrics.

A nanoporous polyimide film filled with a solid polymer electrolyte has high ionic conductivity and high mechanical strength. An all-solid-state battery made with an approximately 10-μm-thick film shows good cyclability at 60 °C and no dendrite formation.

The striped polarization domains in a BiFeO₃/TbScO₃ heterostructure induce alternating p- and n-type doping at the interface, giving rise to strongly anisotropic in-plane conductance.

Ferroelectric topological defects show emerging exotic physical properties, which are important for future nanoelectronic devices. Here, the authors demonstrate conductive metallic conduction channels in two types of topological defects, namely vortex and center cores.

Piezoelectric actuators play a critical role in precision positioning devices; however, materials with high actuation strain and mechanical energy density are rare. Here a composite of poly(vinylidene fluoride) and TiO₂ demonstrates superior performance in these metrics, with the ferroelectric transition driven by Joule heating.

Understanding high piezoelectricity in relaxors is challenging due to the heterogeneous structures. Here, the authors demonstrate that the competing local polar order-disorder state with balanced length and direction randomness is the key.

Ferroelectric reliability must be solved prior to practical non-volatile electronic devices based on magnetoelectric multiferroics. Here, Hsiehet al. report a long lasting ferroelectric retention in the heteroepitaxially constrained multiferroic mesocrystal.

The electromechanical response of thin film ferroelectric devices is considerably influenced by ferroelastic domains. Here, the authors observe that these ferroeleastic domains can be stabilized by dislocations, providing feedback for a better control over the properties of these devices.

The authors find that alternating current electric fields with amplitudes near the coercive field at low frequencies (<10 Hz) can be employed to depolarize poled relaxor-PbTiO₃ single crystals at room temperature, without conventional heat treatment.

A trailing flexoelectric field induced by SPM tip motion enables the selective control of multiple domain switching pathways in ferroelectric materials.

Clamping effects in ferroelestastic thin films limits their usefulness for applications such as sensitive mechanical sensors. Here, the authors report on non-local mechanical force induced switching in PbTiO₃ thin films by tuning the material to a state of nearly energetically degenerate co-existing domains.

Self-assembled, ferroelectric BiFeO₃ nanoislands confine centre-type quad-domains that can be switched reliably by means of an electric field, changing the domain-wall conductance by three orders of magnitude.

Electronic bandwidth modulation by static pressure has been explored in several material families. Wang et al. use temperature-dependent Raman spectroscopy and density functional theory to reveal phonon-driven modulation of electronic pseudogap and density wave fluctuations in a ruthenate Ca₃Ru₂O₇.

Simulations were used to investigate the effects of local structural heterogeneity on piezoelectricity in ceramics. From this, a Sm-doped PMN–PT composition was designed with an extremely high piezoelectric coefficient for polycrystalline systems.

Electrostatic capacitors can enable ultrafast energy storage and release, but advances in energy density and efficiency need to be made. Here, by doping equimolar Zr, Hf and Sn into Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ thin films, a high-entropy stabilized Bi₂Ti₂O₇ pyrochlore phase forms with an energy density of 182 J cm⁻³ and 78% efficiency.

A full kinetic pathway of a non-classical nucleation-induced phase transformation through metastable states is elucidated at sub-ångström resolution in a technologically important titanium alloy.

Reducing the switching energy of ferroelectric films remains an important goal. Here, the authors elucidate the fundamental role of lattice dynamics in ferroelectric switching on both freestanding BiFeO₃ membranes and films clamped to a substrate.

The relationship between Li-ion concentration and Li deposition remains an issue to be addressed. Here the authors show that stimulated Raman scattering microscopy offers insight into the concentration evolution and its impact on the dendrite growth, which is not possible by existing techniques.

Polar skyrmions are particle-like objects consisted of swirling electric dipoles that hold promise for next generation nanodevices. Here, the authors explore the strain-induced transition from skyrmions to merons using electron imaging methods.

Polar Solomon rings in a ferroelectric nanocrystal have been observed and electrically manipulated, which consist of two intertwined vortices and are mathematically equivalent to a \({4}_{1}^{2}\) link in topology based on knots and links theory.

Dielectric capacitors based on relaxor ferroelectrics are a promising energy storage technology, and an efficient design of relaxors is useful to enhance the storage performance. Here the authors quantitatively evaluate the local compositional inhomogeneity of relaxors via a configurational entropy index and realize overall high performance in a Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂-based device.

Combining a perovskite ferroelectric with moderate piezoelectric properties and a nonpiezoelectric pervoskite relaxor can create a highly piezoelectric material. Here, the authors help explain this unusual result by quantifying how polar nanoregions in the material contribute to its piezoelectric response.

Magnetoresistive random access memory offers significant promise as a next-generation memory technology. Nan and colleagues present a design concept for a device that simultaneously possesses ultrahigh storage capacity, ultralow power dissipation, and high-speed operation at room temperature.

Ferroelastic switching in thin films is typically restricted by constraints from the substrate or occurs around twin-like domains. Here, the authors show reversible and non-volatile ferroelastic switching avoiding substrate constraints in layered-perovskite Bi_2WO_6 epitaxial films.

In ferroelectric thin films, ferroelastic domains affect the features of polarization switching. Gao et al.perform real-time transmission electron microscopy measurements and show that ferroelastic domains can hinder the switching via formation of a transient interface layer with a dipole glass structure.

Electric fields typically break symmetry when applied as a stimulus to materials. Here, by forming a superlattice of BiFeO₃ and TbScO₃, it is shown that an electric field can repeatedly stabilize mixed-phase polar and antipolar BiFeO₃.

The periodic domain pattern of BiFeO₃ enables the anisotropic superconductivity in YBa₂Cu₃O_7 − x. In this work, we introduce a design of periodic multiferroic domain patterns to create the anisotropic superconductivity. High T_C can be found when we measured the resistance parallel to the domain wall direction and the broader transition with lower T_C is found to be perpendicular to the domain walls. (a) and (b) the resistance versus temperature in YBa₂Cu₃O_7 − x/BiFeO₃ heterostructures with two different domain patterns 109° and 71°, respectively.

A dynamical study shows that vortices of electrical polarization have higher frequencies and smaller size than their magnetic counterparts, properties that are promising for electric-field-driven data processing.