Over 50 years ago, Anderson and Blount discussed symmetry-allowed polar distortions in metals, spawning the idea that a material might be simultaneously metallic and ferroelectric. While many studies have ever since considered such or similar situations, actual ferroelectricity--that is, the existence of a switchable intrinsic electric polarization--has not yet been attained in a metal, and is ...

We report density functional studies of electron rich interfaces between KTaO3 or KNbO3 and CaSnO3 or ZnSnO3 and in particular the nature of the interfacial electron gasses that can be formed. We find that depending on the details these may occur on either the transition metal or stannate sides of the interface and in the later case can be shifted away from the interface by ferroelectricity. We...

Many biological tissues are piezoelectric and pyroelectric with spontaneous polarization. Ferroelectricity, however, has not been reported in soft biological tissues yet. Using piezoresponse force microscopy, we discover that the porcine aortic walls are not only piezoelectric, but also ferroelectric, with the piezoelectric coefficient in the order of 1 pm/V and coercive voltage approximately 1...

We theoretically study origins of the ferroelectricity in the multiferroic phases of the rare-earth (R) Mn perovskites, RMnO(3), by constructing a realistic spin model including the spin-phonon coupling, which reproduces the entire experimental phase diagram in the plane of temperature and Mn-O-Mn bond angle for the first time. Surprisingly we reveal a significant contribution of the symmetric ...

Ferroelectricity in finite-dimensional systems continues to arouse interest, motivated by predictions of vortex polarization states and the utility of ferroelectric nanomaterials in memory devices, actuators and other applications. Critical to these areas of research are the nanoscale polarization structure and scaling limit of ferroelectric order, which are determined here in individual nanocr...

Ferroelectrics sometimes show large electro-optical and non-linear optical effects, available for polarization rotation and frequency conversion of light, respectively. If the amplitude of ferroelectric polarization is modulated in the picosecond time domain, terahertz repetition of optical switching via electro-optical and non-linear optical effects would be achieved. Here we show that polariz...

ABO3 perovskite oxides with magnetic A and B cations offer a unique playground to explore interactions involving two spin sublattices and the emergent effects they may drive. Of particular interest is the possibility of having magnetically driven improper ferroelectricity, as in the much studied families of rare-earth orthoferrites and orthochromites; yet, the mechanisms behind such effects rem...

Ferroelectricity is essential to many forms of current technology, ranging from sensors and actuators to optical or memory devices. In this circumstance, organic ferroelectrics are of particular importance because of their potential application in tomorrow's organic devices, and several pure organic ferroelectrics have been recently developed. However, some problems, such as current leakage and...

The Bose-Einstein condensation is a fascinating phenomenon, which results from quantum statistics for identical particles with an integer spin. Surprising properties, such as superfluidity, vortex quantization or Josephson effect, appear owing to the macroscopic quantum coherence, which spontaneously develops in Bose-Einstein condensates. Realization of Bose-Einstein condensation is not restric...